CURTAIN MATERIALS, HANGINGS, AND WOVEN FABRICS GENERALLY.
In the consideration of hangings of various kinds, we have first to
notice the nature of the cloth on which the pattern is to be
worked--whether it is of open or close texture. Fabrics of an open
character should bear upon them a larger pattern than those which are
thicker or closer. The openness or closeness of the fabric will thus
determine, to an extent, the nature of the ornament which is to be
placed upon it. Muslins, being open in character, should have larger
patterns than calicoes, which are closer in texture, or the pattern
will be indistinct in the one case or coarse in the other.
But not only does texture influence the pattern when considered as to
coarseness or fineness, but also the nature of the cloth as regards
material. Thus silk will bear greater fulness of colour than muslins
or calico-prints, owing to the fact that the lustre of the material,
by reflecting light to the eye of the observer, destroys a certain
portion of the intensity of the effect of colour which a less
reflective material would exhibit. Silk, as a material, also conveys
to the mind an idea of costliness or worth, and wherever the material
does so the pattern may be richer in colour than it should be in
cheaper and commoner fabrics. If a pattern is in two tints of the same
colour only, as in the case of those woven silks where the pattern is
formed by the contrast of "tabby" and satin, it may be considerably
larger than in those cases where it is rendered conspicuous by
colours.
This latter remark will apply also to damask table-linen, and to all
similar materials, as well as to dress fabrics, and draperies such as
window hangings; but of these we shall say a word shortly.
The closeness or openness of a fabric should, then, be considered when
we design patterns for its enrichment, and so should the nature of the
material, as this will influence its deadness or lustre. But there are
also other considerations which must not be lost sight of. If the
pattern is to be wrought by printing, then one class of conditions
must be complied with; if by weaving, then another class of
requirements call for consideration.
The requirements of manufacture are much more numerous than might be
supposed, and are in some cases very restrictive. The size of the
repeat, the manner in which colour can be applied, the character of
surface attainable, and many other considerations have to be carefully
complied with before a pattern can appear as a manufactured article.
The chief fault of patterns, as applied to fabrics generally, is their
want of simplicity--want of simple structure, want of simple
treatment, want of simplicity of effect; and together with this we
generally find largeness and coarseness of parts.
These errors arise chiefly out of a want of consideration of the
capabilities of the material. What can be done with this or that
particular fabric, is a question that we should carefully ask
ourselves before we think of preparing a design. Have we colour at our
disposal, or texture merely? and if colour, can it be employed freely
or only sparingly? and can any desired colours be placed in
juxtaposition or only certain tints? These are questions of great
importance, and they should be asked and carefully considered before
the first step is taken towards the formation of a pattern. Having
ascertained what can be done with the material at command, let us ever
remember that we should always endeavour to so employ the capabilities
of a material as to conceal its weakness and emphasise its more
desirable effects. If this consideration were always given by
designers to the power which the material has of yielding effects, we
should see, in very many instances, effects strangely different from
those which we often encounter; and this remark applies to no class of
fabrics more fully than to damask table-linen and coloured damask
window hangings.
No satisfactory effect can be got in light and shade upon any woven or
printed fabric; besides, to attempt such a mode of treatment is
absurd. Light and shade belong only to pictorial art. The ornamentist
when enriching a fabric deals only with a surface, and has no thought
of placing pictures thereon; he has simply to enrich or beautify that
which without his art would be plain and unornamental. A picture will
never bear repetition. Who ever heard of a man having two copies of
one picture in a room? Yet how much more absurd is it to repeat a
little picture--perhaps a pictorially rendered flower--a hundred times
over one surface! Besides this, a surface must always be treated, for
decorative purposes, as a surface, and not in a manner calculated to
deceive by giving apparent relief, or thickness, to that which is
essentially without thickness. Take a common damask table-cover. This
is by custom almost always white, although it would be better if of a
deep cream-colour, or soft buff; and the pattern which it bears
results from a change of surface only (why a margin of "ingrain"
colour is not added, I could never see); yet in nine cases out of ten
the pattern which is presented by such a fabric is a miserable shaded
attempt at a pictorial treatment, and is also a thorough failure.
Simplicity of pattern naturally accords with a simple mode of
production, and the means of producing pattern in damasks is certainly
most simple. That there is a natural harmony between simplicity of
pattern and simple means of producing an art-effect is obvious, for of
all patterns that I have ever seen upon damask table-linen the simple
spot, or dot, is the most satisfactory. If, combined with this spot,
we have a border formed of a simple Greek "key-pattern," or of mere
lines (a very usual border to good cloths), the effect is perfectly
satisfying, and, as far as it goes, is highly to be commended.
It is curious that this spot is only sold in the better quality of
table-linen (at least so they tell me in the City), and this shows
that the wealthy, or, in other words, the educated, buy such patterns,
as they prefer the true to the meretricious, while the false and showy
devices which we see on the common cloths please only the common
people of vulgar taste. I am not sure, however, that many persons,
whose means are limited, would not buy spots and other simple, but
correctly treated, patterns, if such were to be got in common
qualities of damask; but when the pocket must govern the purchase, it
is hard to say that the false is preferred to the true, if the true is
not procurable with the means at command.
While I cannot withhold praise from this little spot, it must not be
thought that I thereby give to it a high place as an art-work. Little
is here attempted, and that little is done well. But let us analyse
this pattern. First, the spots are of one tint throughout, if I may
thus express myself--a tint, shall we say, which is the reverse of
that of the ground. It is not shaded so that it may appear as a ball
or globe, and is not graduated in "colour" in any way (were it
graduated or shaded, feebleness of effect must inevitably accrue), but
is a simple, honest spot, treated as a surface ornament. Secondly,
this spot is geometrically arranged, or, in other words, has an
orderly arrangement.
If an attempt is made at rendering a pictorial, or light-and-shade
effect, in damask, an absurd failure can alone result, for depth of
shade is not obtainable in the material; and, besides this, what
appears as shade, when the cloth is seen from one point of view,
appears as light if seen from another point of view. Nothing could be
more absurd, then, than seeking to produce shaded effects with such
means as are here at our disposal. But were the fabric capable of
rendering such effects, it would still be wrong to employ them, as we
deal only with the surface, and are seeking to enhance the value of,
or beautify, a fabric, and not to cover it with pictures. In our
simple spot we have those elements which may be extended into the
richest and most artistic damask patterns. We have order--as indicated
by the geometrical plan of the pattern--and an honest and simple
expression, or application, of the capabilities of the material.
All table-covers should certainly have a border. Any object which is
to be used as a whole looks unsatisfactory if it appears as though it
were part of a whole. If a cloth is without border it is impossible to
avoid the impression that it is a part of a larger cloth, and in every
respect the general effect is decidedly unsatisfactory.
It is perhaps well that we notice one peculiarity of a table-cover
before we dismiss the consideration of such fabrics, which is this,
that while the central portion is seen flat, the border portion is
viewed in folds; and here we come to one of the great peculiarities of
most draperies, that of their being viewed not as flat surfaces, but
in waves or folds. One portion of a table-cloth is, however, seen
flat, but this is almost an exception in the case of draperies.
Another exception to this rule of hangings appearing in folds, and
that of a very complete character, occurs in silk damasks which are
used as a rich lining to the walls of palaces and some mansions; but
of table-cloths we will speak for the present.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.]
[Illustration: Fig. 86.]
[Illustration: Fig. 87.]
[Illustration: Fig. 88.]
[Illustration: Fig. 89.]
[Illustration: Fig. 90.]
The central part of a table-cloth, that portion which is always to be
viewed as a flat surface, may be enriched with any diaper pattern
that is simply treated, and this diaper pattern may be full of design,
provided the parts are not too large or too small. It may also be
formed of gracefully curved parts, or of straight lines or circles, or
of any combination of these elements; but, preferably, not wholly of
straight lines.
Were it not for the fact that much of this central portion of the
cloth is to be covered by articles of the dinner-table, it might well
be furnished with a central ornament, repeating only in quarters; but
as such an ornament, in order that it be satisfying, requires to be
seen as a whole, it is not desirable that such be here employed. A
diaper pattern that repeats many times in the centre is preferable, as
the pattern can then be seen in a satisfactory manner.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.]
The border of a table-cloth, like all fabrics that are to be seen in
folds, requires special treatment, for what looks well when seen as a
flat surface may not look well when seen on a waved surface. Tender
and graceful curves are lost when viewed upon folds, for they here
appear as mere wormy lines. On the contrary, right lines, whether
horizontal or diagonal, and circles, all look well when seen upon
waved grounds. These lines become, owing to the folds of the fabric,
curves of a subtle character. The manner in which lines become
influenced by falling on a curved surface can be readily illustrated
by forming semicircles of paper, and folding them into cones, after
having drawn upon them a series of circles (Fig. 85) or straight lines
(Fig. 86). If these cones (Figs. 87 and 88) are now viewed from above,
or in such a manner that the eye rests over the apices, it will be
seen that the circles have now become richly varied curves, each
having somewhat the form of a blunt heart or cardioid (Fig. 89), and
that the straight lines become horse-shoe-shaped (Fig. 90). These
illustrations will be sufficient to show that what is plain when seen
upon a flat surface may be delicate and satisfying if seen upon a
curved surface; and will also lead us to understand that what may be
delicate and refined when seen upon a flat surface may become feeble
and unsatisfactory if falling upon a waved ground. I have said that
stripes or straight lines, if _crossing_ a folded fabric, are
satisfactory. This is so in almost all cases, the only exception being
in ladies' dresses. Here lines crossing the fabric are not
satisfactory, as they become rings around the body, which appear to
divide it into hoop-like strata. The patterns of dresses _may_ consist
of narrow, vertical stripes, as these are collected together at the
waist of the figure, and fall into graceful curves with any motion of
the body, but the very opposite is the case with window-hangings. All
vertical stripes are here highly offensive, while horizontal stripes
are thoroughly satisfactory.
A consideration of the window-hanging materials made in Spain,
Algeria, and on the Morocco coast, will show us the beauty of
horizontal stripes; and in some of the little Algerian warehouses,
such as we have in Regent Street, London, and in the Rue de Rivoli in
Paris, we see some of these fabrics of a most interesting character.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.]
To state in a concise form the laws which should govern the
application of ornament to certain fabrics which are to be seen in
folds, I should say--
1st. Great simplicity of pattern is necessary.
2nd. Circles, straight lines crossing the fabric, and diagonal lines
are all correct in such a case, and are improved by the folds, which
form them into subtle and beautiful curves (Fig. 91).
3rd. If curves are tender and graceful, they become commonplace on a
waved or folded ground.
4th. The size of the pattern should be considered in relation to the
size of the folds of the material.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.]
In Germany a kind of ornament is applied to rich stiff fabrics which
is almost peculiar to the country. This ornament is rich, bold, hard
or stiff in its lines, and in every way adapted for the decoration of
a costly fabric which falls in large folds, the folds changing the
hard and stiff lines into graceful curves. This should also be noted
respecting these curious yet beautiful patterns, that they are always
simple in plan, however rich in detail, and are invariably founded on
a geometrical basis. "German Gothic" is a name by which such ornament
may be distinguished (flat Gothic ornament has always been quite
distinct from the stone and metal ornaments of Gothic buildings, which
have solid and not merely superficial form), see Figs. 92 and 93. This
particular class of ornament forms the background to many old
pictures, a most interesting collection of which exists in the museum
of Cologne, and is certainly worthy of the most careful study.
As to flat silk wall-damasks, which are used in some of the
upper-class houses as wall-papers are used in the middle-class houses,
all that need be said is that they should be treated as wall
decorations, and not as fabrics which are to be seen folded. Were I
asked whether I approve of these damasks as wall coverings, I should
say, "Certainly not." A wall is better treated as a wall, and not so
covered with drapery as to leave space for vermin between the wall and
its enrichment. There is also the further objection that the lines
where the fabric is joined are visible, and these are most certainly
objectionable.
[Illustration: Fig. 94.]
Besides the illustrations of German ornament just given, we figure
also a specimen of Indian embroidery on cotton (Fig. 94). I cannot too
strongly recommend the designer of patterns for woven goods to study
the native fabrics of India, exhibited at the Indian Museum,
Whitehall.
[Illustration: Fig. 95.]
[Illustration: Fig. 96.]
Besides the collection here brought together, there is also in most of
our manufacturing towns a large series of specimens of these cloths
deposited with the Chamber of Commerce, and these can be consulted by
all respectable members of the community. Speaking of these Indian
fabrics, Mr. Redgrave says, in his Report on Design prepared for the
Commissioners of the International Exhibition of 1851:--"These are
almost wholly designed on the principles here presumed to be just
ones--the ornament is always flat, and without shadow; natural
flowers are never used imitatively or perspectively, but are
conventionalised by being displayed flat and according to a
symmetrical arrangement; and all other objects, even animals and
birds, when used as ornament, are reduced to their simplest flat form.
When colour is added, it is usually rendered by the simplest local
hue, often bordered with a darker shade of the colour, to give it a
clearer expression; but the shades of the flowers are rarely
introduced. The cloth of gold figured in the loom (Fig. 95), and part
of an Indian scarf (Fig. 96), illustrate fully these remarks. The
ornament is geometrically and symmetrically arranged, flat, in simple
tints, and bordered, as above described, with darker shades of the
local colour. The principle of colour adopted is a balance of the
complementaries red and green, in both cases with white introduced to
give points of expression, and to lead the eye to the symmetrical
arrangement of the ornament. In Fig. 95 purple is introduced to
harmonise with the gold ground, a harmony very frequently used in the
rich tissues of India. In Fig. 96 variety has been obtained by
introducing two reds, giving an interchange of a lighter tint in every
other flower in the border. The borders of these scarves are
beautifully illustrative of the simple and graceful flowing lines
which characterise Indian ornament; and in Fig. 96 we can observe the
difference between the Eastern and the mediaeval patterns--while the
same principles are acknowledged in both, the latter are often stiffer
and more angular than the graceful sprigs of this border. Both these
works show how much beauty may be obtained by simple means, when
regulated by just principles, and how perfectly unnecessary are the
multiplied tints by which modern designers think to give value to
their works, but which increase the difficulties of production out of
all proportion to any effect resulting from them--nay, often even to
the absolute disadvantage of the fabric. If we look at the details of
the Indian patterns, we shall be surprised at their extreme
simplicity, and be led to wonder at their rich and satisfactory
effect; it will soon be evident, however, that their beauty results
entirely from adherence to the principles above described. The parts
themselves are often poor, ill-drawn, and common-place; yet, from the
knowledge of the designer, due attention to the just ornamentation of
the fabric, and the refined delicacy evident in the selection of
_quantity_ and the choice of tints, both for the ground, where gold is
not used as a ground, and for the ornamental forms, the fabrics,
individually and as a whole, are a lesson to our designers and
manufacturers, given by those from whom we least expected it."
Much that Mr. Redgrave here says is worthy of careful consideration,
and I can do no more than recommend the student to study these
beautiful Indian fabrics, and consider them in conjunction with the
remarks which we have made respecting them and fabrics in general.