390. The yellow of the painted ornaments is excessively enfeebled by the complementary of the ground which is added to it, the ornaments appear grey in comparison with those upon a white ground. 391. The yellow ground is not so unfavourable to gilt ornaments as it is to painted ones. The first assortment may, in certain cases, be recommended. The yellow appears more intense, and perhaps greener. _Bright Green Ground._ 392. Painted ornaments are darker upon a bright green ground than upon a red or white ground. They have acquired some red, but not the brilliant tint which is given to them by black—it is a brick-red tint. 393. It follows from the comparison of the effects of ornaments upon red and upon green grounds, that the first is much more advantageous than the second, because it adds an essentially brilliant tint to the colour of the ornaments, while the latter, adding red, or taking away green, produces a brick-red. 394. Upon a bright green ground, _metallic gilt ornaments_ acquire red, as the painted ornaments do, while the red, not sensibly diminishing the brilliancy of the metal, but, on the contrary, augmenting the intensity of its colour, produces an excellent effect. The green ground is more intense and bluer than the same ground upon which the painted ornaments are placed. 395. The study of the effects of red and of green grounds upon painted ornaments, on the one hand, and upon gilt ornaments on the other, is extremely interesting to paperstainers and decorators; it demonstrates to them the necessity of taking into consideration, in the juxtaposition of bodies which it is proposed to associate, the brilliancy which these bodies naturally possess, and the brilliancy we wish to impart to them, if they have none. The preceding examples (386, 394) explain why the paperstainer will choose dark red instead of green for his gilt ornaments, and why a decorator will prefer green to red for the colour of the hangings of a show-room of gilt bronzes, gilt clocks, &c. _Blue Ground._ 396. Observation agrees perfectly with the law that it is really upon a blue ground, that painted ornaments, whose dominant colour is the complementary of blue, show themselves to the greatest advantage with respect to intensity of the gold-yellow colour. This effect more than compensates for the slight difference which may result from the red ground giving a little more brilliancy. The ornaments upon the latter ground, compared with those on the blue, are less coloured and appear whiter. With _metallic gilt ornaments_ the blue ground is deeper and less violet than with painted ornaments. _Violet Ground._ 397. Conformably to the law, the violet ground giving greenish-yellow to the painted ornaments, is favourable to them; they appear on this ground less olive-grey, more brilliant than upon the white ground, and less green than upon the red ground.