The decorative art of civilised peoples is very complex, and the motives which prompt it are obscure; it appeared to me that our best chance of finding out the underlying principles was to study less complex conditions. I must confess that I have been mainly concerned to provide an efficient tool for the use of other workers, and I have not been anxious to elucidate the multitudinous designs and forms which beset us on every hand. This task I leave to my readers, and they need not confine themselves to decorative designs or patterns, for the forms and the adjuncts of objects are susceptible of the same treatment, and will yield analogous results.
Almost any manufactured object that may first meet the reader’s eyes has a history that is bound up with the history of man. The eyes alike of the head and of the mind require to be opened. Too often we envy the traveller who has voyaged afar: If we had had his opportunities, if we had seen what he has seen—we too might have been able to make discoveries! We pine for the unattainable and neglect our opportunities. The world is before us, and that too at our very doors.
PLATE I.—SKEUOMORPHS OF BINDING.
Plate I
Plate I
Plate I
PLATE II.—SKEUOMORPHS OF WATTLE-WORK.
Plate II
Plate II
Plate II
PLATE III.—SKEUOMORPHS OF BASKETRY.
Plate III
Plate III
Plate III
PLATE IV.—SKEUOMORPHS OF THE WITHY-BAND.
FILIGREE.
SKEUOMORPHS OF FASCINING.
SKEUOMORPHS OF WEAVING.
Plate IV
Plate IV
Plate IV
PLATE V.—SKEUOMORPHS OF TIMBERING.
Plate V
Plate V
Plate V
PLATE VI.—ZOOMORPHS.
Plate VI
Plate VI
Plate VI
PLATE VII.—ZOOMORPHS.
WITHY BAND.
Plate VII
Plate VII
Plate VII
PLATE VIII.—PHYLLOMORPHS.
Plate VIII
Plate VIII
Plate VIII