Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466.Holmes, William Henry
History
Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466.
Holmes, William Henry
Decoration and ornament -- History; Indian art -- North America; Pottery -- History
Of the various classes of utensils associated closely with the ceramic
art, there are none so characteristically marked by constructional
features as nets and wicker baskets. The twisting, interlacing,
knotting, and stitching of filaments give relieved figures that by
contact in manufacture impress themselves upon the plastic clay. Such
impressions come in time to be regarded as pleasing features, and when
free-hand methods of reproducing are finally acquired they and their
derivatives become essentials of decoration. At a later stage these
characters of basketry influence ceramic decoration in a somewhat
different way. By the use of variously-colored fillets the woven surface
displays figures in color corresponding to those in relief and varying
with every new combination. Many striking patterns are thus produced,
and the potter who has learned to decorate his wares by the stylus or
brush reproduces these patterns by free-hand methods. We find pottery in
all countries ornamented with patterns, painted, incised, stamped, and
relieved, certainly derived from this source. So well is this fact known
that I need hardly go into details.
In the higher stages of art the constructional characters of
architecture give rise to many notions of decoration which afterwards
descend to other arts, taking greatly divergent forms. Aboriginal
architecture in some parts of America had reached a development capable
of wielding a strong influence. This is not true, however, of any part
of the United States.
+SUGGESTIONS OF ACCIDENTS.+
Besides the suggestions of surface features impressed in manufacture or
intentionally copied as indicated above, we have also those of
accidental imprints of implements or of the fingers in manufacture. From
this source there are necessarily many suggestions of ornament, at first
of indented figures, but later, after long employment, extending to the
other modes of representation.
+IDEOGRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL SUBJECTS.+
Non-ideographic forms of ornament may originate in ideographic features,
mnemonic, demonstrative, or symbolic. Such significant figures are
borrowed by decorators from other branches of art. As time goes on they
lose their significance and are subsequently treated as purely
decorative elements. Subjects wholly pictorial in character, when such
come to be made, may also be used as simple decoration, and by long
processes of convention become geometric.
The exact amount of significance still attached to significant figures
after adoption into decoration cannot be determined except in cases of
actual identification by living peoples, and even when the signification
is known by the more learned individuals the decorator may be wholly
without knowledge of it.
MODIFICATION OF ORNAMENT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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