DOI issue:
Division I: Great Britain
DOI article:Froggatt, F. G.: British wall and ceiling decoration
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19999#0162
BRITISH WALL AND CEILING DECORATION
as to where they will be used and no voice in their use or misuse—
too often, alas, the latter. And to this the designer has another
handicap added, for, whilst the purchaser of carpet, or cretonne,
or tapestry sees the thing he buys in a whole piece, he usually
chooses his wallpaper from a collection of patterns bound together.
Thus it follows that the designer must make his pattern "cut up
well in the book" if it is to be what the manufacturer naturally
demands, a commercial success. This is a very real limitation,
resulting often in the too frequent repetition of the unit of design.
It is impossible to represent in black and white one very
important section of wallpapers entirely of modern development.
These are the patterns where the design is simply the means of
giving a surface of broken colour on the walls, and are what, when
all is said, it is the chief function of wallpapers to be—backgrounds.
It is a somewhat disquieting conclusion which one is bound to
come to, that here the English designer is being outdistanced
by the German, who, when he has purged himself, as he will, of a
tendency to eccentricity of line and over-elaboration of detail, will
prove a formidable rival. It will be greatly to be deplored if the
English designers, who undoubtedly have shown the way in modern
design, have to yield pride of place.
It must be admitted that our art schools, so far as the teaching
of these branches of design is concerned, the designing that is of
flat patterns, are a dismal failure. The exhibition of the National
Competition drawings at South Kensington during the summer of
1907 showed this most clearly, for the designs, whether for tapestry,
wallpapers, or printed stuffs, were pitiably weak. The examiners
in awarding medals or certificates seem to have been reduced to
the expedient of selecting the "least bad."
The papers reproduced show no marked departure from those
of previous years. Mr. Voysey in the two patterns (B 156 and 159)
remains faithful to his birds. The smaller of the two suffers
somewhat in reproduction, the birds being greatly over emphasised.
Messrs. Jeffery & Co. are represented by three patterns, one by
Mr. Frederick Vigers (B 154), reverting to an older style, whilst
the remaining two (B 157 and 158) are by Mr. Sidney Haward, a
designer to whom we are indebted for many fine patterns. The
paper based on the rose, by Mr. James Thomas (B 153), and
the one by Mr. Alfred Dennis (B 152), based on the ranunculus,
though so widely different in detail, evidently owe their origin
to a common ancestor. The remaining design (B 151) is by
Mr. W. A. Tarrant, produced partly by block printing and partly
by stencil.
xxiv
as to where they will be used and no voice in their use or misuse—
too often, alas, the latter. And to this the designer has another
handicap added, for, whilst the purchaser of carpet, or cretonne,
or tapestry sees the thing he buys in a whole piece, he usually
chooses his wallpaper from a collection of patterns bound together.
Thus it follows that the designer must make his pattern "cut up
well in the book" if it is to be what the manufacturer naturally
demands, a commercial success. This is a very real limitation,
resulting often in the too frequent repetition of the unit of design.
It is impossible to represent in black and white one very
important section of wallpapers entirely of modern development.
These are the patterns where the design is simply the means of
giving a surface of broken colour on the walls, and are what, when
all is said, it is the chief function of wallpapers to be—backgrounds.
It is a somewhat disquieting conclusion which one is bound to
come to, that here the English designer is being outdistanced
by the German, who, when he has purged himself, as he will, of a
tendency to eccentricity of line and over-elaboration of detail, will
prove a formidable rival. It will be greatly to be deplored if the
English designers, who undoubtedly have shown the way in modern
design, have to yield pride of place.
It must be admitted that our art schools, so far as the teaching
of these branches of design is concerned, the designing that is of
flat patterns, are a dismal failure. The exhibition of the National
Competition drawings at South Kensington during the summer of
1907 showed this most clearly, for the designs, whether for tapestry,
wallpapers, or printed stuffs, were pitiably weak. The examiners
in awarding medals or certificates seem to have been reduced to
the expedient of selecting the "least bad."
The papers reproduced show no marked departure from those
of previous years. Mr. Voysey in the two patterns (B 156 and 159)
remains faithful to his birds. The smaller of the two suffers
somewhat in reproduction, the birds being greatly over emphasised.
Messrs. Jeffery & Co. are represented by three patterns, one by
Mr. Frederick Vigers (B 154), reverting to an older style, whilst
the remaining two (B 157 and 158) are by Mr. Sidney Haward, a
designer to whom we are indebted for many fine patterns. The
paper based on the rose, by Mr. James Thomas (B 153), and
the one by Mr. Alfred Dennis (B 152), based on the ranunculus,
though so widely different in detail, evidently owe their origin
to a common ancestor. The remaining design (B 151) is by
Mr. W. A. Tarrant, produced partly by block printing and partly
by stencil.
xxiv