IT" 
 
 'T^ E^^CT, 5 O O K^ °r 
 nRNA/AENTAL, 
 
 THE. 
 
 ANATO/A" 
 OF 
 
 PATTERN 
 
 
Cornell University Library 
 arV18093 
 
 The anatomy of pattern / 
 
 3 1S9A 031 236 114 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031236114 
 
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMEi^TAL DESIGN. 
 
 By lewis F. day 
 
 THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN. 
 
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 
 
 By lewis F. day. 
 
 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN 
 
 WILL BE READY SHORTLY. 
 
^la-te 
 
 
 
 Construction, of 
 
 German Gotlpic 
 
 'Tracery 'Pattern & 
 
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 
 
 THE 
 
 ANATOMY OF PATTERN. 
 
 BY 
 
 LEWIS F. DAY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'EVERY-DATI: ART,' ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN. 
 
 1887. 
 
. UlNilVERSiTY 
 -^LIBRARY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 There was a time in my own struggling for 
 artistic existence, when I should have been 
 so grateful for any practical teaching in orna- 
 rrient, that I fancy there must be students 
 who will find it helpful to have set plainly 
 before them what I have had to puzzle out 
 for myself Hence this series of Text Books 
 of Ornamental Design ; in which I have 
 amplified and illustrated the substance of 
 a series of Cantor Lectures delivered in 
 December last before the Society of Arts. 
 
 I have assumed no great amount of tech- 
 nical or artistic knowledge on the part of the 
 reader — only that he wants to know. And, 
 elementary as my subject is, I have taken 
 some pains to save him all unnecessary effort 
 in' following my meaning. 
 
 The illustrations are to be taken literally 
 as illustrations, and not by any means con- 
 sidered as ornamental addenda to the book. 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 It is only as diagrams that they have any 
 claim to insertion ; although, as an orna- 
 mentist, I have naturally made the necessary 
 diagrams as interesting as under the circum- 
 stances was feasible. 
 
 I have tried to make each one of the 
 plates, as far as possible, explanatory in 
 itself ; so that from the study of them alone, 
 apart from what I have to say, a fair idea 
 of the construction of pattern might be 
 gained. 
 
 Lewis F. Day. 
 
 13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C. 
 March Tptk, 1887. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. — Introductory i 
 
 II.— Pattern Dissection 8 
 
 III.— Practical Pattern Planning 25 
 
 IV. — The "Drop" Pattern 34 
 
 V. — Skeleton Plans 40 
 
 VI. — Appropriate Pattern 47 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 1. THE CONSTRUCTION OF GOTHIC TRACERY PATTERNS — 
 
 Showing the square, diamond, hexagon, circular, or 
 other plan on which elaborate tracery is built. 
 
 2. THE SQUARE — Checks and other diapers built on cross- 
 
 lines. 
 
 3. THE LATTICE AND THE DIAMOND — Plaids, zigZagS, 
 
 &c,, built on cross-lines. 
 
 4. FRETS, &c. — Showing their construction on a network 
 
 of cross-lines. 
 
 5. ALL-OVER PATTERN — Showing the cross-lines upon 
 
 which it is planned. 
 
 6. THE TRIANGLE — Diapers of star, hexagon, and lozenge 
 
 shapes, built up on the lines of the equilateral triangle. 
 
 7. THE TRIANGLE— Diapers composed of the equilateral 
 
 triangle and its compounds. 
 
 8. THE HEXAGON — Honeycomb and other diapers based 
 
 upon the hexagon and its compound. 
 
 9. THE OCTAGON — Simple octagon diapers and the lines 
 
 of their construction. 
 
 10. ARAB LATTICE PATTERNS — Dissected, and their anatomy 
 
 laid bare. 
 
 11. CURVILINEAR PATTERNS — Showing the construction 
 
 of the wave, the ogee, the net, &c. 
 
X List of Plates. 
 
 12. DIAPERS OF CIRCLES— With lines showing the points 
 
 from which they are struck. 
 
 13. OTHER CIRCULAR DIAPER FORMS— Produced by inter- 
 
 secting circles. 
 
 14. FREE JAPANESE DIAPER— The repetition of geometric 
 
 forms not geometrically disposed. 
 
 15. THE SCALE PATTERN — Together with ogee, cusped, 
 
 and other shapes derived from it. 
 
 16. A STAR PATTERN — Showing six different ways of 
 
 arriving at a simple diaper. 
 
 17. ITALIAN DAMASK — Showing its construction upon the 
 
 lines of the scale pattern. 
 
 18. HENRI II. BOOK-COVER — Showing result of reversing, 
 
 and again reversing, the pattern. 
 
 19. SOME PATTERN PLANS — Shovring (A) the square plan, 
 
 (B) the dropped parallelogram plan. 
 
 20. SICILIAN SILK — With the cross-lines on which the 
 
 design is built, and the diagonal lines it assumes. 
 
 21. TAPESTRY OF THE XVTH CENTURY — With the rect- 
 
 angular unit of repeat, in which the pattern is turned 
 over, after the manner of the weaver, 
 
 22. LATE-GOTHIC VELVET — Showing horizontal effect of 
 
 pattern constructed upon the lines of the ogee or 
 hexagon. 
 
 23. WALL-PAPER PATTERN— Shovnng Ogee lines on which 
 
 it is planned. 
 
 24. A DROP-PATTERN— In which the construction is not at 
 
 first apparent. 
 
List of Plates. xi 
 
 25. MAP— Showing three plans, on either of which the same 
 
 simple pattern may be produced. - 
 
 26. VARIOUS DROP PATTERNS — Showing the effect of the 
 
 drop according to its length, &c. 
 
 27. DIAGONAL DAMASK PATTERN — Showing its Construc- 
 
 tion on the diamond, which is not apparent. 
 
 28. ARAB TILE AND LATTICE PATTERNS— Showing the 
 
 simple means by which intricacy is produced. 
 
 29. DESIGN — Exemplifying the intentional confusion of 
 
 forms. t' 
 
 30. WALL-PAPER DESIGN — Showing a "drop" in the 
 
 ornamental scroll, whilst the grotesque creatures in- 
 troduced follow tke lines of the square block. 
 
 31. PERSIAN TEXTjLE-^Showing the lines of the double 
 
 square on which tae pattern is constructed, as distinct 
 from the lines it takes. 
 
 32. FOLIATED SCROLL — A design made on square lines, yet 
 
 assuming an ogee shape. 
 
 ij, 
 
 33. ITALIAN SILK — Showing ogee, hexagon, or diamond 
 
 plan. 
 
 34. SET PATTERN — Explanatory of economy in weaving. 
 
 35. DAMASK — On the^ plan of waved upright lines, crossed 
 
 by horizontal bknds of rosettes. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 36. — Line 14, dele from •" When " to " upright line." 
 „ 37 ,, 2, dele from "But " to end of paragraph. 
 
THE 
 
 ANATOMY OF PATTERN. 
 I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The dictionary scarcely helps us to a defini- 
 tion of the word pattern, in the somewhat 
 technical sense in which it is used by the 
 designer. 
 
 Inasmuch as a pattern signifies a "speci- 
 men," one might argue that repetition is im- 
 plied in ornamental pattern. But inasmuch 
 as any "shape or model for imitation" is 
 quite as strictly speaking a pattern, one 
 cannot exactly define pattern as repeating 
 ornament. 
 
 Nevertheless, pattern mostly comes of re- 
 petition. Many a pattern bears on the very 
 face of it the evidence that it grew directly 
 out of the, necessity of repetition. 
 
 It is more than probable that some me- 
 chanical necessity gave rise to all geometric 
 
 B 
 
2 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 pattern ; certainly it is impossible to plait, 
 net, knit, weave, or otherwise mechanically 
 make, without producing pattern. It may be 
 so small, as it often is in weaving, that the 
 warp and weft are invisible to the naked eye ; 
 but it is there ; and all that remains for us to 
 do is to efface it all we can, or to make the 
 best of it. 
 
 Out of the determination to make the best 
 of it has grown much of the most beautiful 
 pattern-work. To neglect this source of in- 
 spiration, therefore, to say nothing of the 
 attempt to suppress it, would seem to be 
 wasteful of opportunity to the very last 
 degree. 
 
 The very repetition of parts, then, produces 
 pattern ; so much so, that one may say 
 wherever there is ordered repetition there is 
 pattern. Take any form you please, and 
 repeat it at regular intervals, and you have, 
 whether you want it or no, a pattern, as 
 surely as the recurrence of sounds will pro- 
 duce rhythm or cadence. 
 
 The distribution of the parts need not even 
 be regular. The wave marks on the sand, 
 the veins of marble, the grain of wood, the 
 crystallisation of the breath upon the window- 
 
Introductory. 3 
 
 panes, the curls of the hair, the very features 
 of the human face — resolve themselves into 
 pattern. So distinctly is this last the case, 
 that the ornamentist finds himself con- 
 tinually devising, malgr£ lui, patterns that 
 remind one of faces. There is even room for 
 speculation whether it may not have been 
 with a view of escaping this danger, or 
 anticipating it rather, that the designer first 
 took to the deliberate use of those masks and 
 grotesque heads, which form so prominent a 
 feature in certain styles of ornament. 
 
 The popular idea of the process of orna- 
 mental design is, that the artist has only to 
 sit down before a piece of paper, and, like a 
 spider, spin out the fancies that may crowd his 
 fertile imagination. Indeed, there is scope in 
 design for all his fancy ; but he is no Zeus 
 that ornament should spring, Athena-like, 
 full-grown from his brain. 
 
 Ornament is constructed, patiently (I will 
 not say laboriously, for the artist loves the 
 labour), patiently built up on lines inevitable 
 to its consistency — lines so simple, that to the 
 expert it is not difficult to lay bare its very 
 skeleton ; and just as the physiologist divides 
 the animal world, according to anatomy, into 
 
 B 2 
 
4 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 families and classes, so the ornamentist is able 
 to classify all pattern-work according to its 
 structure. Like the scientist, he is able even 
 to show the affinity between groups to all 
 appearance dissimilar ; and, indeed, to point- 
 out how few are the varieties of skeleton upon 
 which all this variety of effect is framed. 
 
 Before enumerating these varieties, let us 
 suppose for a moment a man to imagine (and 
 this is by no means an imaginary case) that 
 he will make to himself a repeating pattern 
 without regard to its logical construction — as 
 though in his domain there should be no 
 skeletons. That would be, from my point of 
 view, a profoundly foolish thing to do ; but, 
 more than that, it is impossible. He may 
 design a unit in which there is no repetition, 
 and no formality, but the moment he repeats 
 that unit, the very order of its repetition 
 proves to be, if I may call it so, the cupboard 
 in which the skeleton will be found. 
 
 It might be imagined that by designing in 
 some such haphazard fashion as I have just 
 supposed, the artist would secure to his design 
 a freedom of line, an absence of formality, not 
 readily to be obtained by adopting the more 
 systematic method. But this is not by any 
 
Introductory. 5 
 
 means so. If, indeed, the design be of that 
 absolute uniformity all over, that there is 
 no one feature in it more pronounced than 
 another, it may pass muster, notwithstanding 
 the want of backbone. But that is not to 
 claim much for it as a design. And it was 
 scarcely worth the pains to take exceptional 
 measures merely to this insignificant end. 
 
 If, on the other hand, a design be above 
 the level of insignificance, there must be in it 
 some dominant feature or features, which, 
 when many times repeated, will appear more 
 prominent than ever. It is to, these features 
 that the eye will irresistibly be drawn ; and it 
 is the lines they take in relation one to 
 another, which will assert themselves. It is 
 hardly to be expected that, if these lines have 
 never been taken into consideration, they 
 should come out very satisfactorily — and, as a 
 matter of experience, they always come out 
 awry. Every one must have suffered more or 
 less from wall-paper, and other patterns,, in 
 which certain ill-defined but awkward stripes 
 impressed themselves upon him ; and he may 
 have imagined possibly, if he thought about 
 it, that this effect of stripes came of working 
 upon vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines. 
 
6 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 It was much more likely, the result of not 
 working upon definite lines at all. A designer 
 who knew the ABC of his business, would 
 make sure of lines not in themselves offensive; 
 he would counteract a tendency to stripes in 
 one direction by features directing the atten- 
 tion otherwards ; and he would so clothe any 
 doubtful line that there would be no fear of 
 its unduly asserting itself, as in its naked- 
 ness it might. He foresees the danger (it is a 
 danger even to the most experienced) and he 
 is fore-armed against it. The mighty man 
 of valour who disdains to be -trammelled by 
 principles, or any such encumbrance, is with- 
 out defence against contingencies practically 
 certain to arrive. It is only by a miracle, or 
 a fluke, that he can escape failure. The over- 
 whelming odds are, that the petty considera- 
 tions he has despised, will be quite enough to 
 wreck any venture he has dared in defiance 
 of them. 
 
 Since, then, it is practically inevitable that 
 there shall be definite lines in ornarriehtal 
 design— seeing that if you don't arrange for 
 them they arrange themselves — ^it is the merest 
 common sense to lay down those lines to begin 
 with, and, in -fact, to make them the skeleton 
 
Introductory. 7 
 
 or framework upon which you build up your 
 pattern. 
 
 You will see, when they are laid bare for 
 you, that these skeletons are after all very 
 few. 
 
8 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 II. 
 PATTERN DISSECTION. 
 
 Repeated- pattern may be classified ac- 
 cording to its structure, I said. 
 
 First in order of obviousness comes the 
 stripe. It comes also very early in order of 
 invention : the loom must from the begin- 
 ning have suggested the stripe-pattern, which 
 practically grows out of it. 
 
 The stripe, however, carries us only a very 
 short distance in the direction of design. For 
 immediately you make any break in the re- 
 peated line, the recurrence of that break gives 
 other lines in the cross direction. 
 
 Suppose a series of horizontal bands broken 
 at equal intervals by a series of rosettes. It 
 is clear, that if the rosettes fall one under the 
 other, they give upright lines ; or if they are 
 shifted you get diagonal cross lines. If the 
 line itself is broken, as in the case of a series 
 
?late2. 
 
 1 
 
 ■■■■■• ■■■■ ^BU 
 
 ■ ■ ■ T "as ■"§ 
 
 ■ ■■ n ii 
 
 ill I 
 
 SGI (7^6 
 
 flA%5 
 
 II 
 
?late 3. 
 
 l-t-Lt-4 ,- 
 
 Cross lM;ob rh-^eo L^-tticc- I 
 ULLHILDIUI 11-^^ . i 
 
 Jjiui FTtl g^ I7%& 
 
 ■pi] Og olP I OlBf Ml "l— 1_1^ 
 
 ^4^ alaBBla|DlD| ■ H^allrai 
 
 
 
 ■I 
 r 
 
 /CrosstJa'tl-eriT. 
 
 '•MJI 
 
 rc/v^A^/\ \AAAAA 
 
 %ffim; 
 
^Ute 4. 
 
 cj'.Mi,'a«iiiiu...i;r.'"."i a h.tv. 
 
Pattern Dissection. g 
 
 of waved lines, or, still more plainly, in a 
 series of Vandykes, the turn of the wave, or 
 the point of the zigzag, when it is repeated, 
 gives the cross line just the same. 
 
 And so we come at once to the vast order 
 of patterns constructed upon cross lines. 
 
 This is probably quite the first in point of 
 time, arising as it inevitably does out of the 
 very primitive art of plaiting. You have 
 only to interweave strips of two different 
 colours, and you get at once a check, or what 
 is familiar to us in black and white as the 
 chess-board pattern. (Plate 2.) 
 
 Suppose the interwoven strips were all of 
 one colour, then the lines, of intersection would 
 make a lattice or basket-work pattern. 
 
 The simplest form of check or lattice is 
 when the crossing is at equal intervals and at 
 right angles. Vary the interval, and you 
 have all manner of plaids and tartans. Alter 
 your point of view (or turn the design 45 
 degrees round) and you get the diamond. 
 The difference in point of view makes no 
 real difference in plan : a stripe may take 
 any direction, but it is always a stripe. But 
 if we alter the angle at which the lines 
 cross, we get not only a fresh variety of 
 
lo The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 shapes, but we get also a diamond shape 
 which, for the sake of clearness, I will call 
 the diamond, which plays a very important 
 part in the next order of patterns, at which 
 however we have not yet arrived. Various 
 plaids,. diamond's, and other developments of 
 the lattice are exemplified in Plate 3. 
 
 In the case of a regular network of cross- 
 lines there is no particular reason why they 
 should always be filled in alternately a la 
 chess-board. . They may just as well be 
 grouped in twos, threes, fives, and so on, re- 
 solving themselves into patterns of great 
 variety and even of intricacy, as may be 
 seen in Plate 2. 
 
 This theory, however, must not be pressed 
 too hiard, or you may squeeze something very 
 like a false idea out of it. It might be 
 contended that all patterns are formed on 
 the square, or all patterns, at least, that can 
 be woven, the threads forming the squares on 
 which the design is laid. This is obviously 
 absurd. The only patterns built on the 
 square are those in which, the artist (con- 
 sciously or not) worked, upon, those, lines. 
 The actual squares apparent in a coarsely- 
 woven scroll, or in the old-fashioned sampler, 
 
^-^lale 5- 
 
Pattern Dissection. \ i 
 
 belong, not to the pattern, but to its trans- 
 lation into a textile fabric. 
 
 If instead of the chess-board we take the 
 lines of the lattice, and work upon them, we 
 get, without departing from those lines (only- 
 intermitting them) a wonderful range of inter- 
 lacements and the like ; some of them of ex- 
 ceeding intricacy, as in the case of the "fret" 
 A number of these are shown on Plate 4. 
 There seems no limit to the ever-increasing 
 range of pattern-work thus disclosed, all built 
 upon the same constructional scaffolding. 
 
 From the intermission of the lines results 
 a kind of spot pattern, more or less free, 
 which might be mistaken for a distinct order 
 of design. But it is only a variety. 
 
 It really matters little whether a design is 
 constructed on geometric lines, or only ar- 
 ranged so that it falls within them. The 
 skeleton, when you come to dissect the two, 
 is the same in either case. Our theory of 
 construction, therefore, applies quite as much 
 to sprigs, spots, and all so-called free patterns, 
 as to those in which the constructional lines 
 actually occur as lines. You have not done 
 away with construction when you have suc- 
 ceeded in keeping the scaffolding out of 
 
1 2 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 sight. Again, the use of the broken line in- 
 stead of the straight, or of the curved (which 
 we shall have to consider more particularly- 
 further on), makes no difference except in 
 effect. The skeleton is the same, though 
 you show no lines at all, as in the "all 
 over" pattern on Plate 5, which is planned 
 on the parallelogram given by lattice lines. 
 
 So far we have had to do only with the 
 simplest of all possible schemes, in which at 
 most two series of lines intersect one another. 
 The introduction of a third series of cross 
 lines constitutes a new departure, and a most 
 important one. 
 
 Cross the square lattice by a series of dia- 
 gonal lines bisecting the right angles — 
 cutting the squares in half, that is to say — 
 and we have a new form to work upon, the 
 triangle. 
 
 If instead of the square lattice, one starts 
 with a lattice of diamond shape, a third 
 series of cross lines bisecting the angles of 
 the diamond produces equally a diaper 
 of triangles. 
 
 And if the diamonds of the lattice be of a 
 certain proportion^f, that is to say, two 
 sharp angles be together equal to one of 
 
^loLte 6. 
 
 ^AAAAAAAAAAk A A A i 
 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 
 U\AA»AAAAAAA A A A^' 
 AAAA AAAA A AA AAAAAAA A 
 
 kAAAAAAAAAAAAA A AAi 
 
 Z!AAAAAAi[AA4AAAZ\il 
 
n^late 7. 
 
 cj'ir-a,Tk>><i.itk'.SKfBi»i ».n<ivn>,x.c 
 
fPlate 8. 
 
 CTIU.'ElLMaldeh'. 
 
Pattern Dissection. 1 3 
 
 the blunter angles, you have only to bisect 
 the blunt angle of the diamonds by this 
 third series of cross lines to arrive at the 
 equilateral triangle, which of all triangles is 
 far away the most useful in design. 
 
 By merely grouping the equilateral triangles, 
 as in Plate 6, we get the hexagon (a group 
 of six triangles), the star (a group of twelve), 
 and other shapes, such as that on Plate 7, 
 which is made up of seven triangles (i. e. three 
 diamonds and a triangle) ; or that on Plate 8, 
 which is composed of eighteen triangles or 
 three hexagons. 
 
 A glance at the three Plates 6, 7, 8, will 
 show how immensely the designer's scope is 
 now widened. 
 
 We have already the basis of all that in- 
 finity of geometric pattern which we find 
 in Byzantine mosaic inlay, and in the 
 Moresque tile-work derived from it. It will 
 be seen that the hexagon, the star, and 
 other compound shapes, themselves form 
 exactly-fitting diapers. 
 
 By the use of a fourth series of cross lines 
 another new shape is evolved. Returning 
 once again to the square lattice, if we cross 
 it diagonally both ways, cross it by itself. 
 
14 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 that is, so that each square is cut up into 
 four, you get out of those lines the octagon 
 (Plate 9) ; but not an equal-sided octagon ; 
 that is, built on a cross lattice of different 
 proportions. 
 
 The octagon, however, is not a unit which 
 will of itself form a diaper, as the hexagon 
 will. It is only in connection with a square, 
 diamond, or other four-sided figure, that it 
 will repeat. Place side by side a series of 
 octagons, and there will appear four-sided gaps 
 between (Plate 9). Nevertheless, this new 
 series of lines gives us new varieties of radi- 
 ated, patterns : witness once more the elaborate 
 interlacings of the Arabs ; all of which, even 
 the most magnificent, are closely related, to 
 the seat of a common cane-bottomed chair. , 
 
 It is possible to carry the principle of radia- 
 tion further still. You may, for example, cross 
 this more elaborate lattice by a lattice like 
 itself; but you get by that means rather 
 ■ intricacy than variety — especially when the 
 intersecting lines are in part interrupted. In 
 certain Arab patterns, where this ultra-elabora- 
 tion of lines is employed, it appears almost 
 as if a new principle had been introduced 
 (Plate 10) ; but upon analysis the designs 
 
fPlsLte 9. 
 
 .■JI,tM*11*>>Dl^AwaJ. « 3>nV>i 
 
^late 10. 
 
Pattern Dissection. 
 
 15 
 
 resolve - themselves into the elements with 
 which we have already had to deal — so few 
 are the plans upon which pattern is con- 
 structed. Already we have come to the end 
 of the straight-lined family. 
 
 Why, it may be asked, can you not make a 
 diaper on other lines, on the lines of the 
 pentagon for example ? Well, you may put 
 together so many pentagons — and a very re- 
 spectable diaper they form — especially if you 
 further enrich the 
 pentagons with 
 five-pointed stars. 
 Not long since I 
 came upon just 
 such a diaper, 
 which, for a mo- 
 ment, promised 
 to upset all my 
 neatly arranged 
 theories on the 
 subject of pat- 
 tern anatomy. 
 However, I had only to dissect it, to discover 
 that it was our old friend the diamond in 
 disguise ; but so artfully made up as at first 
 sight to deceive. There it is. It consists of 
 
 Pentagon diaper and its skeleton. 
 
1 6 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 pentagons put side by side, the interstices 
 between them ingeniously filled with stars 
 and triangles, much as the pentagons them- 
 selves are filled— so that one does not readily 
 distinguish between the parts. It wants no 
 telling that shapes of any kind may be put 
 together to form a pattern ; but that does not 
 alter the fact that the lines on which they are 
 arranged, or into which they fall, must be 
 those I have already laid down ; which are 
 indeed the base of all possible pattern. 
 
 For further variety in design, we must resort 
 to the use of the circle. The circle itself must, 
 indeed, be arranged on one or other of the 
 foregoing plans. It must be struck, that is to 
 say, from centres corresponding to the points 
 of intersection of lines, such as have already 
 been described. In so far it is only one of the 
 innumerable arbitrary shapes that may be so 
 arranged. But the circle is so important a 
 feature in itself, it so entirely alters the 
 scope of geometric pattern, that it deserves 
 to be considered apart. One cannot simply 
 ignore the element of curvilinear design in 
 ornament. 
 
 Whether or not the idea of flowing patterns 
 originated in the circle, is of no great conse- 
 
^la-tell. 
 
 
Pattern Dissection. 17 
 
 quence. Instinct must have preceded geo- 
 metric principles in the mind of man. 
 
 One may very easily deduce many of the 
 common curvilinear patterns directly from 
 angular motives. (Plate 1 1.) 
 
 The wave, for example, is a zigzag, just 
 blunted at the points. Soften the lines of the 
 hexagon, and you have the ogee. Interlace 
 straight rods, and you get waved lines, as 
 may be seen in the perspective view of the 
 common hurdle. Round the corners of the 
 hexagon or octagon, and you arrive at a rude 
 circle. The relation of the hexagon or octa- 
 gon diaper to the diaper of circles is obvious. 
 Presumably, the busy bee, if one may suggest 
 such a thing without irreverence, only works 
 in a circle, and the hexagonal form of the cells 
 of the honeycomb is simply the result of 
 gravitation; just as you find that cylinders 
 crowded all become hexagonal prisms. 
 
 The circular form is familiar to man from 
 the moment he first sees the sun or moon 
 like a disc in the sky, as also the principle of 
 radiation is perceived in the stars. For all we 
 know, the very first pattern ever traced by 
 human hand may have consisted of circles. 
 The primeval artist had only to pick up the 
 
 c 
 
is The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 nearest I dry twig, and indent the damp earth 
 with the end of it, to get a series of round 
 impressions, which would pass for a very 
 respectable diaper. I don't say that was so. 
 I only mean to insist upon it, that the ways 
 in which patterns are formed can be reduced 
 to the siniplest ; and that they _ practically 
 force themselves upon the workman^making 
 him, as it were, an artist in spite of him- 
 self. 
 
 The circle, with its segment the curve, and 
 its compound the spiral, assumes extreme 
 importance whenwe come to the consideration 
 of the scroll (with which just now we are not 
 concerned) ; but it will be seen that even in 
 mere diapers it leads to an apparently new 
 order of things. 
 
 The simplest form of circle diaper is when 
 the .circles are arranged on the square or the 
 diamond plan ; and so as to touch at the edges. 
 By . the intersection . of the circles, one by 
 another, an effect of much greater elaboration 
 is at once obtained ; and it makes all the dif- 
 ference whether you determine the proportions 
 of the circle according to the lines on which 
 they are struck (as in Plate 12) or not (as on 
 the upper part of Plate 1 3). 
 
CPlate 12. 
 
fPlate 13. 
 
 ^i^pers -"-^b-^i-W,^^^. . (^i^j^g 
 
 *COiislY-uctio(i 
 of Scale 
 "pattern, 
 
 'rbc iti1cri«lion oF 
 
 dotted ltn«b dhoiuoccnlrcborcirclc 
 
n^lsLte 14. 
 
Pattern Dissection. 1 9 
 
 Out of the circle, or its segments, we get 
 also the trefoil, the quatrefoil, and all manner 
 of cusped shapes (Plate 15), which also must 
 needs be put together on one or other of the 
 plans already propounded. 
 
 Further, out of the segments of the circle 
 you can construct the scale pattern, which 
 (as you may see on Plate 15) might equally 
 have been derived from the scales of a fish 
 or the plumage of a bird's neck. The scale 
 may also be considered as a translation of the 
 diamond into curved lines. Re-arrange the 
 scales and you have a more graceful, as well 
 as a more complicated, diaper (same plate) — 
 in which appears the ogee shape, once before, 
 referred to as being a curvilinear modification 
 of the hexagon. 
 
 The , hexagon itself may be deduced from 
 it. Suppose a network of interlacing wave 
 lines or ogee shapes — it amounts to the same 
 .thing — and the result is a series of six-sided 
 figures (Plate 11), very nearly approaching 
 the straight-lined hexagon. 
 
 In this way the straight-lined series might 
 be derived from the curved ; and so once more, 
 by a veiy different road, we reach always, in 
 this maze of pattern-work, the same pointy 
 
 C 2 
 
2 o The A natomy of Pattern. 
 
 which is, the limited variety of the skeleton on 
 which pattern is built. 
 
 From the combination of straight lines with 
 curved (Plates 12 and 13) result all manner 
 of new diaper forms ; which, however, present 
 nothing very new in the way of skeleton. 
 
 You might start a scroll pattern, such as was 
 common in the sixteenth or seventeenth cen- 
 turies (Plate 17) on the lines either of the 
 hexagon or of the ogee, or of a mixture of 
 curved and straight lines which I may call the 
 broken ogee ; and in the end it would not be 
 very clear which of them you had taken for a 
 g-roundwork ; or even whether you had not 
 founded your design upon the diamond— such 
 close kindred do those various skeleton lines 
 betray. 
 
 I have dwelt at some length upon rudi- 
 mentary diaper forms, for reasons quite apart 
 from anything intrinsically interesting or 
 beautiful in them, although they may be both 
 one and the other. More especially is this 
 likely if tender colours be employed to soften 
 the forms, or if the colour variations do not 
 quite follow the pattern, as in the case of 
 marble inlay, where the accidental colour of 
 the material is a relief from the geometric 
 
n^late 15 
 
Pattern Dissection. 2 1 
 
 monotony of the shapes. The Japanese some- 
 times go so far as to interrupt the pattern, 
 wiping out a bit of it here and there, anti- 
 cipating, indeed, the softening effect that age 
 might impart to it. (Plate 14.) 
 
 But it is more as a basis of design that we 
 have at present to consider geometric forms. 
 The basis of all repeated patterns is, as I said, 
 geometric. And, this being so, it is as essen- 
 tial that the designer should be acquainted 
 with simple geometric principles, as it is that 
 a figure draughtsman should have some 
 knowledge of superficial anatomy. 
 
 For all the simplicity of the skeleton lines 
 he has to deal with, the pattern designer's 
 art is not such a simple thing as you might 
 suppose. He has not merely to invent pretty 
 patterns, but patterns that can be conveniently 
 worked — and the lines mapped out for him 
 by the conditions of his work, are, in most 
 instances, not just those which beauty would 
 have decreed. 
 
 They prove, however, to be identical with 
 the lines already shown to be the basis of all 
 recurring pattern-work ; and so we begin to see 
 that, had there been no such thing as pattern 
 design before, and no traditional forms of 
 
2 2 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 design for us to follow, those very forms must 
 have been evolved as certainly out of the more 
 complex conditions of modern manufacture as 
 they were out of the simple contrivances of 
 primitive handicraft. That is to say, that the 
 lines first given to us by the primary processes 
 of netting, plaiting, and so on, would equally 
 have been prescribed by the printing roller or 
 the power loom. 
 
 It is one of the most interesting points in 
 the . analysis of pattern design to see how 
 regularly we work round, again and again, to 
 identically the same shapes. You cannot safely 
 dogmatise as to the origin of this or that 
 pattern ; there are always so many ways in 
 which it might have been suggested. Put side 
 by side a series of waved lines so that their 
 curves are opposed (Plate ii) and the effect is 
 exactly the same as though you had opened 
 out an ogee diaper ; you can deduce either 
 pattern from the other. Or, again (same 
 plate), if the ogees interlace, it is impossible 
 to say whether this was the outcome of the 
 ogee, or of waved lines, or simply of the pro- 
 cess of netting. 
 
 On Plate i6 are shown six different ways 
 in which one and the same simple staif 
 pattern may be arrived at. 
 
^late 16, 
 
Pattern Dissection. 23 
 
 1. By the juxtaposition of stars and the 
 addition of cross-lines. 
 
 2. By the juxtaposition of diamonds and 
 the addition of cross-lines. 
 
 3. By the juxtaposition of right-angled 
 diamonds, each occupied by a star. 
 
 4. By the interlacing of two series of 
 octagons, and the addition of cross-lines. 
 
 5. By the crossing of two series of zigzag 
 lines, and the addition of cross-lines. 
 
 6. By the crossing of two series of diamonds 
 or lozenges, and the addition of cross-lines. 
 
 And this does not by any means exhaust 
 the number of ways in which the same 
 result might have been reached. 
 
 To take another instance, of a very dif- 
 ferent kind, you know how common it is to 
 see a waved line with leaves alternating on 
 each side of it. It appears on the face of it, a 
 quite mechanical and arbitrary arrangement ; 
 but you have only to note how, in nature, 
 the alternate leaves on a slender stem, pull 
 it out of the straight to see the natural and 
 inevitable origin of the idea. By merely ex- 
 aggerating the slight wave of the natural 
 stem, you get one of the most conventional 
 of ornamental border patterns. 
 
24 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 So it would seem that,, whether you begin 
 with mechanical construction or with nature, 
 it works round, in the htod of an orna- 
 mentist, to the same thing in the end — only 
 in the hands of an ornamentist. 
 
-v 
 
 late 17. 
 
 
 erKA.nii>iidu.sn>»(T>i st.H.'aaM.x.c 
 
Practical Pattern Planning. 25 
 
 III. 
 PRACTICAL PATTERN iPLANNING. 
 
 Pattern design is very seriously affected 
 by the circumstance that the possible lines 
 of construction are not in all cases practicable. 
 
 In practical design for manufacture the 
 limitations are strict ; and it is only by sub- 
 mission to them that success in ornamental 
 design is possible. Nor is it only the style 
 or character of the design that is affected, 
 but its plan also. 
 
 The Oriental mind, delighting in geometric 
 intricacy, has availed itself largely of the 
 triangular unit, and has built up with it all 
 manner of delightfully elaborate patterns. 
 The modern European finds it more con- 
 venient to him to adopt the simpler paral- 
 lelogram. He may now and then use hexa- 
 gonal or other many-sided tiles, but he 
 prefers the square. So also the weaver's 
 cards are inevitably in the shape of parallelo- 
 grams, and the printer's blocks ; and though 
 
26 The Anatomy of Pattern, 
 
 the printer make use of the roller instead 
 of the block, the conditions of design remain - 
 unaltered ; for the roller is, for all practical 
 purposes of design, only a block bent round 
 in the shape of a cylinder. 
 
 Even the bookbinder of the Renaissance, 
 who was comparatively free to do what he 
 liked in the way' of "tooling," was led, 
 whether by instinct or by his tools, to adopt 
 a rectangular repeat, as in Plate i8 ; in 
 which also is exemplified what may be done 
 in the way of reversing, and again reversing, 
 the unit of design — so as with comparatively 
 little drawing to produce the effect of an 
 extensive pattern. 
 
 We have, ordinarily, to reconsider the pos-' 
 sible lines of pattern construction in their 
 relation to the rectangular figure, which is the 
 repeat determined for us by the conditions of 
 nearly all modem manufacture. 
 
 The base of our operations is then usually 
 a parallelogram. 
 
 Furthermore, this parallelogram is in all 
 cases restricted in size, and in most cases of 
 more or less arbitrary proportions. 
 
 For example — in the case of wall-paper 
 printing, it is practically determined for us 
 
?late 18. 
 
Practical Pattern Planning. 27 
 
 that the printer's block shall be rectangular. 
 Custom has further fixed its width at 21 
 inches. And, since a block of greater length 
 than that would be unwieldy, we are restricted 
 to a square of 21 inches by 21 inches. 
 
 The block may represent a fraction only 
 of the design, which can theoretically be 
 made up of as many blocks as you please. 
 But in practice the expense of such a pro- 
 ceeding would make the paper-hangings cost 
 more than paper-hangings are ordinarily 
 worth ; and, apart from commercial consider- 
 ations, which would be enough to prevent 
 that kind of extravagance, it is contrary to 
 craftsmanship so to misapply labour. The 
 most capable artist is he who can apply his 
 art to most purpose, and get full value out of 
 his materials. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the wall-paper designer 
 has to content himself, then, except in very 
 few instances, with a repeat of at most 21 
 inches square. 
 
 Within those limits he is comparatively 
 free ; but, as I have already shown, do what 
 he will, his repeated pattern will fall into 
 geometric lines, if only those of the parallelo- 
 gram on which it is built. A pattern, such as 
 
28 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 A, on Plate 19, may seem at first sight to 
 eonform to no conditions of restraint ; but the 
 actual lines of the repeat are apparent on 
 closer inspection in any single feature whose 
 recurrence is to be traced. It is based, you 
 will find, upon the square. 
 
 Apart from the conditions of actual manu- 
 facture it is found commercially expedient to 
 adopt certain fixed dimensions for the tile, 
 block, roller, or whatever it may be— and we 
 are thus constrained to design tiles (if they, 
 are to be of any use) on the usual three, six, 
 eight-inch or other accepted scale ; textiles 
 to a width fixed by the loom, and a length 
 controlled by the consideration of economy ; 
 block-printed fabrics under very similar con- 
 ditions ; and roller-printed to a length as well 
 as a width prescribed. The proportion of the 
 parallelogram within which our design must 
 be confined varies, that is to say, with the 
 manufacture for which we are designing. An 
 experienced designer could often tell, from 
 its proportion and scale alone, for what par- 
 ticular manufacture a design was made. And 
 it is in the impracticability of his ideas that 
 the novice most infallibly betrays his lack of 
 experience. 
 
9la1e 19. 
 
 CrKelPhoto-llth, 
 
Practical Pattern Planning. 29 
 
 There is no occasion to enter more fully 
 into all the various technical reasons for the 
 limitations to which the designer is subject 
 The practical convenience of them, however, is 
 patent. It is as desirable that the architect, 
 for example, should know what sized tiles 
 may be available, as that he should be able 
 to reckon upon the " bond " of his brickwork ; 
 and it is equally clear that without some uni- 
 formity in the width of materials (such as 
 silks, velvets, carpets, chintzes, and so on), it 
 would be difficult to estimate, off-hand, the 
 relative cost of each. 
 
 As it is, the public is not seldom misled in 
 that way. The difference between 18 and 
 2 1 inches in width, is not so apparent to the 
 eye that the purchaser of a French wall- 
 paper need realise, when he selects it, that it 
 is actually nearly seventeen per cent, dearer 
 than an English paper nominally at the same 
 price ! Something very like a swindle is 
 perpetrated when facts of this kind are 
 deliberately kept from the buyer. There is a 
 further fraud in withholding from him the in- 
 formation that certain foreign goods sold by 
 the piece are only about three-quarters of the 
 length of English goods competing with them. 
 
30 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 To return to the subject — the upshot of it 
 is, that the designer has habitually to shape 
 his design according to a rectangular plan, 
 and that of limited, if not fixed, dimensions. 
 
 It becomes, then, a very serious question 
 with him how far he can avail himself of any 
 other basis. 
 
 The student might with advantage set 
 himself to tabulate the possibilities in the way 
 of adapting the various units of repeat ■ to 
 repetition, within the square. It would then 
 be seen that, though all things are possible, 
 there are schemes the artist would like to 
 adopt, which, in order to be brought into the 
 repeat permitted, would need to be worked 
 out upon so small a scale as to become quite 
 too insignificant for use. 
 
 One instance of this it may be worth while 
 to give. 
 
 Suppose a square block of 21 inches, and 
 you wish to adapt a hexagonal design to 
 it. Only those who have tried the experi- 
 ment have any notion how small the hexa- 
 gons would come. If you made your hexa- 
 gons 10^ inches wide, so as to get two in 
 width, they would not come true in the 
 length ; they would be too long. If you made 
 
-?late 20. 
 
 ■lia>,9Jin>tHl * 
 
Practical Pattern Planning. 3 1 
 
 them true, they would 
 not fill the square, but 
 only a space about 21 
 inches by 18. 
 
 Three and a half 
 hexagons in the width 
 would work, but only 
 as a " drop " pattern : 
 that would give hexa- 
 gons of six inches 
 across. In order to 
 occupy the square with 
 true hexagons repeating 
 without a " drop," they 
 would need to be re- 
 duced to half that size ; 
 that is to say, there 
 would have to be seven 
 hexagons to the width, 
 measuring each only 
 three inches across. 
 
 It will plainly be 
 seen, in this instance, 
 how very strictly the 
 artist is bound by 
 considerations which 
 scarcely occur to the 
 
 <-5caTe21 ioc1;)e-> 
 
3 2 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 uninitiated, considerations which have always 
 had a great deal to do with the design of 
 pattern-work. Fashion has had her say in 
 the matter, too, no doubt — it is a wicked way 
 she has ; but though certain lines have been 
 generally adopted at certain periods and in 
 certain countries, I think it will invariably be 
 found that there was some technical or prac- 
 tical reason for their adoption in the first 
 instance. 
 
 Out of the conditions of weaving came, 
 for example, the adoption of upright patterns 
 and cross Colouring (as in the silks of 
 Byzantine, Sicilian, and early Italian design), 
 as well as the turning over of the design on 
 the two sides of an upright stem, or purely 
 imaginary central line. This is shown in 
 Plates 20 and 21, the one taken froni an 
 old Sicilian silk — the other from a coarse 
 woollen fabric of the 1 5th century. 
 
 In Plate 22 may further be seen what 
 influence the material may exercise upon 
 pattern. There was a whole class of patterns 
 of this kind schemed in the 15th and i6th cen- 
 turies, with the obvious purpose of disturbing 
 as little as possible of the rich pile of the 
 velvet for which they were designed. 
 
^kte 21. 
 
?late 22, 
 
Practical Pattern Planning. 33 
 
 The turning over of the pattern is essen- 
 tially a weaver's device. In a pattern similarly 
 planned for printing there is no occasion for 
 that same rigid symmetry of the two sides. 
 On the contrary, it is desirable rather to 
 introduce some variations, as I have done in 
 Plate 23. 
 
34 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 IV. 
 THE "DROP" PATTERN. 
 
 The most useful skeleton to work upon, all 
 things considered, is the diamond. For it is 
 on the basis of the diamond that " drop" 
 patterns are most readily designed. 
 
 The " drop " is a device by means of which 
 the designer is enabled, without reducing the 
 scale of his work, to minimise the danger of 
 unforeseen horizontal stripes in his design, a 
 danger which is imminent when the repeats 
 occur always side by side on the same 
 level. 
 
 The printer's block, we will say, is a square ; 
 or the roller is its equivalent ; or the cards 
 take that form. In the printed . or woven 
 strip, whether paper, cretonne, silk, or what 
 not, the end of one repeat must tally with 
 the beginning of the next, in order that the 
 pattern may be continuous throughout the 
 piece. Equally of course .the design must 
 
?late23. 
 
The • ' Drop " Pattern. 3 5 
 
 be so schemed that the ri^t side of one 
 piece of the stuff will fit on to the left of 
 another, and so on. 
 
 But it is clear that the design may be so 
 contrived that each succeeding breadth has to 
 be dropped in the hanging. 
 
 If this drop were only very slight — say 
 three inches — it would take seven breadths, 
 in a pattern of 21 inches deep, before a given 
 feature in the design occurred again . exactly 
 on the same level. There would be no dan- 
 ger then of any horizontal tendency in the 
 lines, but, on the other hand, great likelihood 
 of a diagonal line developing itself, with even 
 more unfortunate effect. The design steps 
 downwards ; and the shorter the steps, the 
 more noticeable is the line they take. This 
 difficulty is avoided if you make the " drop " 
 just one-half the depth of the pattern, so that 
 every alternate strip is hung on the same 
 level. Then the diagonal lines correct one 
 another. If any line at all asserts itself, it is 
 a zigzag (instead of a step), which, in con- 
 nection with corresponding zigzags above and 
 below, may very possibly form a trellis of 
 diamonds. 
 
 There is good reason, therefore, for saying 
 
 D 2 
 
36 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 the diamond is a useful plan to work on ; for 
 upon it is formed the safest variety of drop 
 pattern — that, namely, which drops one-half 
 its depth. 
 
 Instances of drop patterns are given in 
 Plates 17, 24, 29, 32, 33, and others. 
 
 One has heard persons, more familiar with 
 the forms of ornament than expert in practical 
 design, complain of the difficulty they ex- 
 perience in scheming a "drop." If they 
 would only think of the problem as the 
 filling of a diamond shape, it would come 
 very easily to them. 
 
 When the pattern within the diamond is 
 symmetrically disposed on the two sides of 
 a central upright line, the artist has the 
 opportunity of working out a design which 
 is apparently twice the width at his dis- 
 posal. 
 
 If you subdivide a block of 21 inches 
 thus, so that the two smaller 
 divisions a and V together 
 equal the larger division ^, it 
 amounts to precisely the same 
 thing as though you designed 
 upon the basis of a squat diamond 21 inches 
 high by 42 inches wide. You have only to 
 
^Iate24. 
 
 CF.KollPlioto-LitTi 
 
The " Drop " Pattern. 
 
 37 
 
 transpose the component triangles to produce 
 the squat diamond. But, in order that the 
 design shall be prac- 
 ticable, it must be 
 symmetrically dis- 
 posed on either side 
 of a central line : the 
 one side of it must 
 
 be an exact reverse of the other, or it would 
 not work. 
 
 The advantage gained in this way is, of 
 course, only apparent — what is put into one 
 strip is taken out of the other — but in the 
 case of a pattern appearance goes a long way. 
 From the practical point of view, it is difficult 
 to over-estimate the value of this expedient 
 in design, the common property of designers 
 for all manner of fabrics, but undreamt-of in 
 the philosophy of the amateur. 
 
 Theoretically, it is all the same whether you 
 design a drop on the lines of the square, on 
 the slant, or on the diamond, you may arrive 
 in either case at identically the same result. 
 This is plainly shown in Plate 25, in which 
 the dotted portions of the ground will ex- 
 plain how the same pattern might be built on 
 either one of three plans. You might snip 
 
J 
 
 8 The A ndtomy of Pattern. 
 
 pieces from the four corners of the square 
 and make with them the diamond ; or if you 
 dispose them differently, you might produce 
 the oblique shape ; which last would amount 
 to the same thing as though you had cut off 
 only two corners and transposed them. 
 
 For all that, it makes practically all the 
 difference in the world which plan you adopt. 
 Your design must be influenced to a very 
 considerable degree by the shape you set 
 yourself to fill. It would never occur to you, 
 for instance, to stretch a festoon, or wreath, 
 across a width of space you did not see before 
 you. So it may be fairly said, that such 
 extension of the design, beyond the width of 
 the material, is the direct result of working 
 on the lines of the diamond : whilst you are 
 designing within the lines of the square, you 
 have naturally no impulse to go beyond its 
 limits. 
 
 In designing for tiles and such like, where 
 the material is not continuous, the conditions 
 are soniewhat different, and the possibilities 
 accordingly. Where the unit of design can 
 conveniently be turned round, or half-way 
 round, or three-quarters of the way, the scope 
 of the designer is increased — out of four 
 
The '^ Drop" Pattern. 39 
 
 repeats of a six inch tile he can get, for ex- 
 ample, a circular design 12 inches in diameter. 
 So again, the bookbinder, with a compara- 
 tively limited set of tools, has very con- 
 siderable scope in design ; but even then the 
 lines he can work upon are always the same 
 — although more of them may be open to 
 him than to another. 
 
40 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 V. 
 
 SKELETON PLANS. 
 
 The designer finds it ordinarily more con- 
 venient to design at once upon the diamond 
 lines, because their simplicity enables him 
 better to keep in view the effect of his pat- 
 tern in its repeated form than any other 
 lines (there are others) on which the " drop " 
 can be worked. 
 
 Even though one may have no intention of 
 taking advantage of the full width of a block, 
 it may still be found convenient to design 
 within the diamond, if only in order to 
 economise design : and, mind you, economy 
 is an absolute necessity of the case. But for 
 economic reasons there would be no weaving, 
 printing, stamping, and so on ; we should 
 confine ourselves to embroidery, tapestry, 
 - painting, and other work of our own hands. 
 
 If you begin by dividing the width of 
 21 inches into two, and make your pattern a 
 •'drop," 21 inches long by \o\ wide, it is the 
 same as though you had worked upon a 
 
Tiate 26. 
 
 
Skeleton Plans. 41 
 
 diamond 21 inches from point to point, as 
 may ,be seen at B in Plate 26, although, as I 
 said before, the same pattern would probably 
 not have occurred to you in either case. 
 Designing on the diamond such a pattern as 
 the last-mentioned might very likely occur to 
 one ; on the lines of the dropped parallelo- 
 gram, more likely such a one as B on 
 Plate 19. 
 
 Again, if you divide the width of 2 1 inches 
 into three (A, Plate 26) and On those lines 
 set out a series of diamonds 21 inches long 
 by 14 inches wide, so that the block contains 
 one and a half in the width, this will work 
 as a drop (to fall one-half its depth) if only 
 the diamonds were all filled alike. Variously 
 filled diamonds would not repeat. 
 
 If you still divide your 2 1 inches into three, 
 and institute a series of stripes or panels of 
 seven inches wide, each of which drops at the 
 same interval (whatever it may be), it is likely 
 to result in a diagonal stripe more or less pro- 
 nounced ; which might, of course, equally 
 have been designed upon diagonal lines. 
 (D, Plate 26.) 
 
 If of the three stripes only one were 
 dropped,, the design would also hang as a 
 
42 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 drop, revealing very likely a zigzag line on 
 the principle already laid down. (C, Plate 26.) 
 
 Further explanation of the ways in which 
 a given space may be subdivided (what is 
 said of the supposed 21 inches applies 
 equally to any given parallelogi-am) would be 
 superfluous. Enough has been said to show 
 how by such subdivision the utmost variety 
 of scale may be obtained. 
 
 Although, however you start, you come 
 back always to the same few schemes ; and 
 although in any case your pattern might 
 equally have been designed ' upon other lines, 
 working on those lines it never would have 
 occurred to you. 
 
 The diagonal stripe pattern on Plate 27 
 resolves itself into a diamond repeat, but it is 
 tolerably certain that the designer did not 
 work upon the lines of that diamond, but 
 probably upon a network of diagonal and 
 horizontal cross-lines — as did also the inventor 
 of Plate 20. 
 
 The inevitable influence on your design of 
 the lines upon which you start, is the excuse, 
 and the only excuse, for puzzling over all the 
 various skeletons upon which pattern can be 
 laid out. 
 
n'l ate 27 
 
 _ionat 
 
 rormoS upon C "tbey 
 
 (.».;. of tS|« "J '\j^ 
 
Skeleton Plans. 
 
 43 
 
 It is a good test of your design, when you 
 have roughe;d it out on one plan, to make the 
 finished drawing on another. By that means 
 you see it, as it were, from two points of view, 
 and can form a very fair idea as to how it 
 repeats, without drawing much of the repeat. 
 
 The practical designer, who has learnt not 
 to attach great value to the appearance of 
 his design as a drawing, often cuts it up de- 
 liberately, and re-arranges the parts, in order 
 the better to prove his repeat. A design on 
 the square he cuts into four equal parts, and 
 re-arranges the quarters^ so that what were the 
 corners of the design come together and form 
 the centre, and so on. The accompanying dia- 
 gram shows how 
 the parts of the 
 diamond may be 
 re-arranged. 
 
 But the best of 
 all possible tests is 
 to cut ever so rude 
 a stencil of the 
 
 broad masses of the design, so as roughly 
 to multiply it indefinitely. A child can be 
 taught to apply that test for you ; and it 
 is infallible. 
 
44 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 Whatever the lines of the skeleton, in any 
 important work they are usually disguised. 
 Sometimes (as often in Arab art) they are 
 so crossed and interlaced that it is difficult 
 to follow their intricacy. The really very 
 simple patterns on Plates i,,io, and 28 are 
 at first sight very puzzling. 
 
 Or the lines may be interrupted so that you 
 lose the thread of the design. Or, again, two 
 or more schemes of ornament may be, so to 
 speak, interwoven, the one asserting itself here, ' 
 the other there, so that neither thread of idea > 
 is too conspicuous. The eflfect of this is to 
 be seen in Plate 29, a drop pattern, in 
 which the attention is diverted from the 
 formal lines of the scroll by^ a conventional \ 
 growth of much freer character overrun- ' 
 ning it. ■ 
 
 Further, features may be introduced of such 
 importance in the design that the eye is 
 drawn to them, and fails to perceive the 
 connecting lines between them. 
 
 In Plate 30 the strongly marked bird- 
 forms counteract to some extent the simple 1 
 ogee or diamond lines on which the pattern is- 
 set out. In fact, the birds emphasise the 
 actual repeat of the block, just as the scroll 
 
flaf6 28. 
 
Plate 29. 
 
 iNKi-PHtTO, SPBAfU'E *f' lon; 
 
Skeleton Plans. 45 
 
 reveals the unit of the ornamental repeat ; and 
 out of the two contrasting schemes arises 
 a certain confusion, which is of some artistic 
 account in design. 
 
 Obviously, however, the most effective way 
 of disguising the skeleton is to clothe it, as 
 nature does; and the most natural way of doing 
 this is, with something in the nature of folia- 
 tion ; beneath which the bare constructional 
 lines are as little noticeable as the stiff 
 branches of a tree under their burden of leaf 
 and blossom. (Plates 31, 32, &c.) 
 
 By this means, you get at once life, interest, 
 and variety so great, that one might continue 
 this already lengthy explanation until it 
 became tedious, and yet fail to make the 
 sceptic quite believe in the absolute sim- 
 plicity" of the skeleton forms underlying all 
 pattern. 
 
 The foliated scroll, as you see it, for example, 
 in Roman or Renaissance Arabesque (or 
 even in Plate 32), looks almost as though it 
 were impossible of geometric construction. 
 And, of course, it never is mathematically 
 built up. But, for all that, it falls into the 
 familiar lines. The spiral itself is only a series 
 of segments of circles ; and if you dissect any 
 
■46 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 repeated scroll-pattern, you will find most 
 likely that its back-bone is a wave line or 
 spiral. Certainly you will find it has a back- 
 bone. Pattern is a vertebrate thing ; and in 
 a scroll the spinal cord is very decidedly 
 pronounced. You can easily see when a scroll , 
 is broken-backed. 
 
?1ate ^0, 
 
]3Ae3]. 
 
a.te 32. 
 
 i^iik..ajt »u. J. w.B .»«»,£. 
 
Appropriate Pattern. 47 
 
 VI. 
 APPROPRIATE PATTERN. 
 
 It is only by experience that a designer 
 learns to know what may, and what may not, 
 be done within given lines. Many a notion 
 which one had a thought of adopting, turns 
 out to be practically quite unamenable to 
 existing conditions. 
 
 You caniiot draw a bold, flowing scroll with- 
 out considerable allowance in the way of 
 length in the blocks, cards, or whatever it may 
 be ; nor can you well avoid a certain upright 
 tendency in patterns where the width is very 
 much restricted. The fact of the matter is, 
 the characteristic lines of time-honoured 
 patterns are mainly the direct result of the 
 restrictions under which the craftsman was 
 working. 
 
 It is owing to the facility with which tri- 
 angular cubes of tile can be manipulated, 
 that the peculiarly geometric character of 
 
48 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 much Oriental ornament is due. So also with 
 us, the proportions of the square tile have 
 resulted in a distinctly characteristic form of 
 ornament. 
 
 I do not pretend to say whether the turning 
 over of the design which prevails in early 
 silks, was suggested by the fact that such 
 turning over could be so, readily done in 
 weaving ; but it looks, at all events, as though 
 the Sicilians, and, in fact, weavers generally, 
 until comparatively recent times, adopted that 
 plan of design, because by means of it they 
 could at once double the scale of their pattern. 
 
 In the Renaissance silk, figured on Plate 33, 
 and in all such reversible designs planned 
 upon the diamond, hexagon, or ogee, one- 
 half the labour of designing and card-cutting 
 is saved. Naturally, the nineteenth century 
 manufacturer has not been slow to adopt a 
 plan so obviously economical. It has been 
 said, that the idea of reversing a pattern 
 owes its origin to the circumstance that you 
 may double a sheet of paper, and so, with one 
 action, cut out the two sides of it. If that 
 is not so, it well might be — except that, pro- 
 bably, reversed patterns were common long 
 before paper was. Very possibly it is derived 
 

 C F Kell Pliolo-Lith 
 
^1 ate 34. 
 
Appropriate Pattern. 49 
 
 from the practice of folding or doubling. One 
 may put together, for example, several sheets 
 of veneer, or even several planks, and, with one 
 action of the saw, fret all of them alike. That 
 facility gave rise at all events to Boulle's 
 characteristic inlay patterns ; and in the 
 balconies of Swiss chilets one still sees a very 
 effective kind of pierced pattern-work, which 
 is accounted for in a similar way. 
 
 Bands or stripes of different colours are so 
 common in Eastern curtains, blankets, &c., 
 because they can be so easily woven. Even 
 in more elaborate silk and other designs, 
 certain of the colours are very often dis- 
 tributed band-wise. The variety of colour so 
 obtained, is obviously due to the ease with 
 whiqh the weaver can change his shuttle. 
 
 At the same time, economy is thus often 
 effected. If in such a design' as that on 
 Plate 34 the flowers were meant to appear 
 in gold, or only the eyes of the flowers, the 
 gold thread need only be used in the bands 
 where the flowers or eyes actually occur. 
 You have but to look at the back of any 
 old piece of many-coloured silk damask to 
 see the changes of the shuttle very plainly 
 marked. The aim of the designer is usually to 
 
 E 
 
50 The Anatomy of Pattern. 
 
 disguise them more or less in his pattern. But 
 in the early days of silk weaving the unso- 
 phisticated artist had no fear of a horizontal 
 line. In such a pattern as the Sicilian silk in 
 Plate 20, he would boldly make the various 
 bands of animals in various colours. He 
 would sometimes even carry bands of colour 
 straight across the animals, regardless of their 
 shape. And the effect of this rough-and- 
 ready proceeding, in the silk itself, certainly 
 justifies him. 
 
 In early examples of weaving both the 
 turning over of the pattern, and the banded 
 arrangement of the colour are veiy frequent; 
 indeed, so much so, as to form quite marked 
 features in the design of the eleventh and fol- 
 lowing centuries, whether Sicilian or Italian. 
 (It was from Sicily, you know, that the art of 
 weaving was introduced into Italy.) 
 
 Designers would be the more ready to 
 adopt, and to adhere to, the plan suggested.^; 
 by the loom, in that the horizontal line, due to 
 it, was not anyways injurious to the effect of a 
 fabric meant to fall in folds. The dim vertical 
 line, which was also likely to occur from the 
 turning over, was calculated to lose itself in 
 ..the more strongly marked verticality of the 
 
n^l8LTe35. 
 
Appropriate Pattern. 5 1 
 
 folds ; and the horizontal band emphasised 
 by the change of the shuttle had an absolute 
 value in marking the fulness of the hangings. 
 
 In flat decoration the horizontal band is less 
 unobjectionable ; and it is for that reason that 
 so many of the wall-paper patterns, borrowed 
 or stolen from good old stuffs — by their stripes 
 you shall know them — are altogether unsatis- 
 factory on the wall. To me, horizontal stripes 
 always suggest the ample hanging, and seem 
 to want the folds. 
 
 The bold and beautiful effect of such a 
 damask pattern as that in Plate 35 would 
 be lost if it were rendered in flat decoration, 
 especially without the charm of the texture 
 of the stuff: those waving lines and bands 
 of big rosettes would be unendurable. That 
 pattern, by the way, although it actually 
 works on the principle of the parallelogram — 
 was obviously arrived at by carrying across 
 a series of waved upright lines a broad hori- 
 zontal band of rosettes. 
 
 Many an admirable textile pattern, other- 
 wise in every way suitable, is inapplicable to 
 flat decoration, whether in the shape of silk, 
 or chintz, or wall paper. 
 
 Some persons appear to be of opinion that. 
 
5 2 The A natomy ■ of Pattern. 
 
 a pattern, according to Dr. Johnson, beiiig 
 " something to be copied," design consists 
 therefore in copying what has been done 
 before. That is all very well so far as con- 
 cerns the definition of the word pattern ; but 
 how about the meaning of the word design ? 
 I would go beyond the lexicographer, and 
 say : not every pattern is an " exemplar." 
 
 In adapting a design, from one material 
 to use in another, it is not enough to copy 
 it, it needs to be translated ; which trans- 
 lation is not so easy, but that an artist gifted 
 with any invention of his own, will find it, 
 on the whole, better worth while to say what 
 it is in him to say for himself, and not go 
 on harping on the old, old tunes, melodious 
 though they be. 
 
 The most perplexing thing about modern 
 design is that we are asked tcdesign, to-day 
 under these conditions, to-morrow under those. 
 We have no traditions and no style. And 
 yet in the very variety of the efforts de- 
 manded of us there is relief of a kind ; and in 
 the presence of difficulties our ingenuity, if 
 we have any, is excited. The more difficult 
 the conditions, the more they provoke solu- 
 tion. A designer must have in him something 
 
Appropriate Pattern. 53 
 
 of pugnacity ; he must enjoy attacking a 
 tough problem. A man proves himself a 
 designer, not when he has somehow arrived 
 ■ at a design, but inasmuch as out of unpro- 
 mising material and untoward circumstances 
 he can shape a thing of beauty. 
 
 LONDON ; PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STKEET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
WORKS ON DECORATIVE ART 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON. 
 
 APPROVED BY THE SCIENCE AND AET DEPABTMENT. 
 
 Every Day Art : Short Essays on the Arts not Fine. 
 
 By Lewis Foreman Day, Author of " Instances of Accessory Art," &c. 
 With upwards of loo illustrations, chiefly by the Author, crown 8vo, 
 cloth, gilt, 7j. 6d. 
 
 Modern Ornamentation ; being a Series of Original 
 
 Designs for the Patterns of Textile Fabrics, for the Ornamentation of 
 Manufactures in Wood, Metal, Pottery, &c. ; also for the Decoration of 
 Walls and Ceilings, and other Flat Surfaces. By Chr. Dresser, Ph.D., 
 &c.. Author of "The Art of Decorative Design" ; "Japan, its Archi- 
 tecture, Arts," &c. fjO plates, exhibiting about it/o Designs, imperial 4to, 
 handsomely bound in cloth gilt, 36^. 
 
 "A COMPLETE OBAMMAB OF ADAH'S OBNAMENT." 
 
 The Architecture, Decoration, and Furniture of 
 
 Robert and James Adam, Architects. Twenty-six folio plates (17 in. 
 by I3J in.), selected from " Works in Architecture," published 1778-1822, 
 and Photo-lithographed by James Akerman. Neatly half-bound, i/. 5j. 
 
 Decorative Designs. By Robert Adam. Transfers, 
 
 taken from the Original Drawings in the Soane Museum, by R. Charles. 
 (>fine large plates of Ceilings, Scroll Ornaments, &'c., folded in wrapper, 
 2s. 6d., post-free. 
 
 A Grammar of Japanese Ornament and Design. 
 
 Illustrated by 65 plates, many in Colours and Gold, representing all 
 Classes of Natural and Conventional Forms, Drawn from the Originals ; 
 with Introductory, Descriptive, and Analytical Text. By T. W. Cutler, 
 F.R.I.B.A, Imperial 4to, in elegant cloth binding, 2/. hs. 
 
 Art and Work : as shown in the several Artistic 
 
 Industries employed in the use of Marble, Stone and Terra-Cotta, Metal, 
 Wood, and Textile Fabrics ; as well as in the various Details associated 
 with Decorative Art. The whole exemplified by 85 Lithographic 
 Drawings (each with some Descriptive Explanation) of Antique, Medi- 
 aeval, Italian, Renaissance, and Oriental Examples ; including some 
 Illustrations from the best unpublished Works of the " Brothers Adam," 
 together with other Designs from more recent Authorities. By Owen 
 W. Davis, Architect. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt edges, 2I. 10s. 
 
 Handbook of Coloured Ornament, in the Historic 
 
 styles : a Collection of Choice Authentic Examples, represented on 36 
 plates, printed' in Colours and Gold. Royal 4to, cloth gilt, loj. td. 
 
WORKS ON DECORATIVE ART. 
 
 Suggestions from Bird and Flower : a Series of 
 
 Drawings exhibiting a Variety of Birds in their Haunts, Groups of 
 Flowers and Plants, &c., drawn in a highly Decorative spirit, for the use 
 of Designers, Decorators, and others. By J, Thomas, Decorative Artist, 
 Author of "A Portfolio of Japanese Sketches." 42 large folio plates 
 photogiraphed from the Original Drawings, in portfolio, 36J. 
 
 Native Printed Japanese Art Books: a Charming 
 
 Series of Studies of Birds in most Characteristic and Life-life Attitudes, .^ 
 surrounded with appropriate Foliage and Flowers. In Two Books, each 
 containing 66 pages of highly Artistic and ■ Decorative Illustrations, 
 Printed in Tints. Price, 6j. td. each Book ; or the set of two, \2s. net. 
 
 Art Foliage for Sculpture and Decoration. By J as. 
 
 K. Colling. Second Edition, Enlarged and Revised, containing 81 
 plates, with letterpress and numerous woodcuts. Royal 4to, cloth, \%s. 
 
 Examples of English Mediceval Foliage and Coloured 
 
 Decoration. By Jas. K. Colling. Taken from Buildings of the Twelfth 
 to the Fifteenth Century, 76 lithographic plates, and 79 woodcut illustra- 
 tions, Tyith text. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt top, i8f. 
 
 Flat Ornament : a Pattern Book for Designers of 
 
 Textiles, Embroideries, Wall Papers, Inlays, &c., &c. i^o plates, some 
 printed in Colours, exhibiting upwards of 500 Examples of Textiles, 
 Embroideries, Paper Hangings, Tile Pavements, Intarsia Work, Tapes- 
 tries, Bookbindings, Surface Ornaments from Buildings, &c., &c., 
 collected from Various Museums, Churches, Mosques, &c., &c., with 
 some Original Designs for Textile and other Ornament by Dr. Fischhach, 
 Giraud, and others. Imperial 4to, in portfolio, 25^. 
 
 Examples of Ancient and Modern Furniture, Metal 
 
 Work, Tapestries, Decoration, Sr'c. By B- J. Talbert, Architect, Author 
 of " Gothic Forms applied to Furniture and Decoration." 21 plates, with 
 Description, &c., folio, doth, 32J. net. 
 
 Original Sketches for Art Furniture : By A. Jonquet, 1 
 
 A Series of Designs for Modem Furniture in the Jacobean, Queen Anne, 
 Adam, Chippendale, and Sheraton Styles, illustrated in 143 Designs on 
 65 lithographic plates, exhibiting Examples of Drawing Room, Dining 
 Room, Bedroom, and Hall Furniture, Chimney-Pieces, &c. Imperial 4to, 
 cloth, 25^. 
 
 Motifs for Panels and other Decorations : Twenty 
 
 photo-hthographic plates, exhibiting a great variety of Designs in the 
 Japanesque aud other Styles. By John Ward. Imperial 410, bound, 
 izs. 6d.