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INDIAN ORNAMENT.
and perfection of drawing perfectly marvellous. The ornament No. 1, on Plate
L., from an embroidered
saddle-cloth, excited universal admiration in 1851. The exact balance obtained
by the gold embroidery
on the green and red grounds was so perfect, that it was beyond the power
of a European band to
copy it   h the same complete balance of form and colour.  The way in which
the colours are fused
in all their woven fabrics, so as to obtain what they always appear to seek,
viz. that coloured objects
when viewed at a distance should present a neutralised bloom, is very remarkable.
A due regard to
economy in the production of our Plates has necessarily limited the number
of printings, and we have
not always, therefore, been able to obtain the proper balance of colour.
The Indian collection at South
Kensington Museum should be visited and studied by all in any way connected
with the production
of woven fabrics. In this collection will be found the most brilliant colours
perfectly harmonised-
it is impossible to find there a discord. All the examples show the nicest
adjustment of the massing
of the ornament to the colour of the ground; every colour or tint, from the
palest and most delicate
to the deepest and richest shades, receiving just the amount of ornament
that it is adapted to
bear.
The following general rules, which are applicable to all woven fabrics, may
be observed:-
1. When gold ornaments are used on a coloured ground, where gold is used
in large masses, there
the ground is darkest. Where the gold is used more thinly, there the ground
is lighter and more
delicate.
2. When a gold ornament alone is used on a coloured ground, the colour of
the ground is carried
into it by ornaments or hatchings worked in the ground-colours on the gold
itself.
3. When ornaments in one colour are on a ground of contrasting colour, the
ornament is separated
from the ground by an edging of a lighter colour, to prevent all harshness
of contrast.
4. When, on the contrary, ornaments in a colour are on a gold ground, the
ornaments are separated
from the gold ground by an edging of a darker colour, to prevent the gold
overpowering the ornament.-
See No. 10, Plate L.
5. In other cases, where varieties of colour are used on a coloured ground,
a general outline of gold,
of silver, or of white or yellow silk, separates the ornament from the ground,
giving a general tone
throughout.
In carpets and low-toned combinations of colour, a black general outline
is used for this purpose.
The object always appears to be, in the woven fabrics especially, that each
ornament should be softly,
not harshly, defined; that coloured objects viewed at a distance should present
a neutralised bloom;
that each step nearer should exhibit fresh beauties; and a close inspection,
the means whereby these
effects are produced.
In this they do but carry out the same principles of surface decoration which
we find in the
architecture of the Arabs and Moors. The spandril of a Moorish arch, and
an Indian shawl, are
constructed precisely on the same principles.
The ornament on Plate LIII., from a book-cover at the India House, is a very
brilliant example
of painted decoration.  The general proportions of the leading lines of the
pattern, the skilful distribu-
tion of the flowers over the surface, and, notwithstanding the intricacy,
the perfect continuity of the
lines of the stalks, place it far before any European effort of this class.
 On the inside of the same
cover, Plate LIV., the ornaments are less conventional in their treatment;
but how charmingly is
observed the limit of the treatment of flowers on a flat surface!  This book-cover
offers in itself a
specimen of two marked styles: the outside, Plate LIII., being after the
Arabian manner, and the
inside after the Persian.
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