Examples of household taste . Screen—Aubusson Tapestry : French Court, INDUSTRIAL ART 399 designs, the question remains, Are they excellent, even in an artistic sense, ascarpet designs ? In old times when, as we have seen, carpets were morelooked at than used, designs of flowers, or birds or beasts, or even pictorialrepresentations were not out of place; but all that is changed now: carpetsare made for use, to be walked over, and to be partly covered and concealedby articles of furniture. The eye looks down upon a carpet, not across hori-zontally, as a tapestry or curtain, and it is never more
Examples of household taste . Screen—Aubusson Tapestry : French Court, INDUSTRIAL ART 399 designs, the question remains, Are they excellent, even in an artistic sense, ascarpet designs ? In old times when, as we have seen, carpets were morelooked at than used, designs of flowers, or birds or beasts, or even pictorialrepresentations were not out of place; but all that is changed now: carpetsare made for use, to be walked over, and to be partly covered and concealedby articles of furniture. The eye looks down upon a carpet, not across hori-zontally, as a tapestry or curtain, and it is never more than from four to sixfeet above it; therefore all these considerations should be regarded in devisingcarpet designs. First of all they should be flat, because the surface on which. Casket: Collective Exhibit of Austria. they are to be displayed is to be walked over. We do not wish to tread onbirds or beasts or fishes or insects, crushing them under our feet, nor on flowersor vases or shells. We want a smooth, even surface and the semblance ofone. Secondly, since we see the pattern from such a near distance, we do notwant a huge composition under our feet that can only be seen in entirety froma perch in the chandelier. And thirdly, what is quite as important as anythingelse, the pattern, both in design and color, should be unobtrusive in should be a field for the display of the furniture and ornaments as much asthe wall-paper should be a background for the pictures in a room. Yet howoften do we enter an apartment in which the carpet or the wall-paper, or both,thrusts itself most obtrusively upon the sight. 400 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. On page 389 we engrave an example of French sculpture—a MarbleChimney-Piece—shown in the French Court
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