Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.

Origin and Development of Form
and Ornament
by William
Henry Holmes

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Ornament
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Title: 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.
Author: William Henry Holmes
Release Date: November 28, 2006 [EBook #19953]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AND ORNAMENT IN CERAMIC ART ***

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION--BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF
FORM AND ORNAMENT IN CERAMIC ART.
BY
WILLIAM H. HOLMES.
CONTENTS.
Page.
Introductory 443 Origin of form 445 By adventition 445 By imitation
445 By invention 450 Modification of form 450 By adventition 450 By
intention 452 Origin of ornament 453 From natural objects 454 From
artificial objects 455 Functional features 455 Constructional features
456 From accidents attending construction 457 From ideographic and
pictorial subjects 457 Modification of ornament 457 Through material
458 Through form 458 Through methods of realization 459
ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. 464.--Form derived from a gourd 446 465.--Form derived from a
conch, shell 447 466.--Form derived from a stone pot 448 467.--Form
derived from a wooden tray 448 468.--Form derived from a horn spoon
448 469.--Form derived from a bark vessel 446 470.--Form derived
from basketry 449 471.--Form derived from basketry 449 472.--Form
derived from a wooden vessel 449 473.--Coincident forms 451

474.--Form produced by accident 451 475.--Scroll derived from the
spire of a conch shell 454 476.--Theoretical development of current
scroll 455 477.--Ornament derived through modification of handles 455
478.--Scroll derived from coil of clay 456 479.--Ornamental use of
fillets of clay 456 480.--Variation through, the influence of form 459
481.--Theoretical development of the current scroll 460 482.--Forms of
the same motive expressed in different arts 461 483.--Forms of the
same motive expressed in different arts 461 484.--Forms of the same
motive expressed in different arts 461 485.--Geometric form of textile
ornament 462 486.--Loss of geometric accuracy in painting 462
487.--Design painted upon pottery 463 488.--Theoretical development
of fret work 464 489.--Theoretical development of scroll work 465
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM AND ORNAMENT IN
CERAMIC ART.
BY WILLIAM H. HOLMES.

INTRODUCTORY.
For the investigation of art in its early stages and in its widest
sense--there is probably no fairer field than that afforded by aboriginal
America, ancient and modern.
At the period of discovery, art at a number of places on the American
continent seems to have been developing surely and steadily, through
the force of the innate genius of the race, and the more advanced
nations were already approaching the threshold of civilization; at the
same time their methods were characterized by great simplicity, and
their art products are, as a consequence, exceptionally homogeneous.
The advent of European civilization checked the current of growth, and
new and conflicting elements were introduced necessarily disastrous to
the native development.
There is much, however, in the art of living tribes, especially of those
least influenced by the whites, capable of throwing light upon the

obscure passages of precolumbian art. By supplementing the study of
the prehistoric by that of historic art, which is still in many cases in its
incipient stages, we may hope to penetrate deeply into the secrets of the
past.
The advantages of this field, as compared with Greece, Egypt, and the
Orient, will be apparent when we remember that the dawn of art in
these countries lies hidden in the shadow of unnumbered ages, while
ours stands out in the light of the very present. This is well illustrated
by a remark of Birch, who, in dwelling upon the antiquity of the fictile
art, says that "the existence of earthen vessels in Egypt was at least
coeval with the formation of a written language."[1] Beyond this there
is acknowledged chaos. In strong contrast with this, is the fact that all
precolumbian American pottery precedes the acquisition of written
language, and this contrast is emphasized by the additional fact that it
also antedates the use of the wheel, that great perverter of the plastic
tendencies of clay.
[Footnote 1: Birch: History of Ancient Pottery, 1873, p. 8.]
The material presented in the following notes is derived chiefly from
the native ceramic art of the United States, but