English bond and Flemish bond-forms of brick-laying; pillars and their mouldings; pyramids, obelisks, etc.; post and board, post and rail, and picket fences; various forms of the solid Grecian fret, and other architectural ornaments; framework of bridges; cylinders, solid or hollow, entire, or variously cut and divided, and in both horizontal and vertical positions; arches, both pointed and semicircular; braces and brackets, both plain and curvilinear; solid quarterfoils and trefoils; wheels, in sections, and entire-with crown-wheel, ratchet-wheel, chain-pulley wheel, etc.; windlass; vertical and beveled tubs, both circular and octagonal; ground-plans and elevations of buildings; tenon and mortise work; scarfjointing of timbers; stairways; platforms; ellipses; rings, etc., etc., and all drawn to definite dimensions, while the measurements are indicated by the drawing-paper itself. By this system the study of drawing, in its application to the industrial arts, is rendered one of the exact sciences, wholly mechanical in execution, and as accurate in its delineations as geometry itself. We have here presented only an elementary exposition of the system, designed for school purposes; but the system itself is so simple, that, with the helps here given, the intelligent teacher and pupil will find little difficulty in carrying out the application of its principles to any extent which may be desired.

For several of the rules and principles of Ornamental Art, and also for many of the designs in Drawing-Book No. I., we are indebted to the "Grammar of Ornament," by Owen Jones. It may, perhaps, be thought that it was not especially desirable to preface an Elementary Drawing Series with a statement of the general principles of Art Decoration, and an account of the Leading Schools or Periods of Art, for the reason that such information will seldom be appreciated by beginners in drawing. But to teachers at least-and not merely teachers of drawing-we may hope that these introductory pages will be of some value; and if they shall serve

merely to enlarge the ideas of both teachers and pupils as to the magnitude and importance of the subject of art representation, they will thereby have done a good service to the cause of education.

We would take this occasion to impress upon educators, and those who have the management of our Public Schools, the extreme desirability that all the school instruction in elementary industrial drawing shall be given by the ordinary teachers; and that professional drawing-masters shall be employed, if at all, only in the training of the teachers themselves in a general superintendence of the whole subject of art instruction in all the schools of a city, or county, or even larger district—or in giving instruction to advanced students in the higher Schools of Design. The teachers in our Public Schools are competent to give all the instruction required by their classes in industrial drawing; and care should be taken that pupils do not get the idea that they are required to do something which their teachers themselves can not do. MARCIUS WILLSON.

VINELAND, N. J., June 5, 1873.

PART I.

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE

OF

ORNAMENTAL ART.

I.

OF THE

LIBRAR UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA

INTRODUCTORY.

WE desire to offer to the public a few introductory remarks on Ornamental Art, a subject which we have endeavored to illustrate, in a very elementary manner, in the first book of our Industrial Drawing Series.

We are aware that those who have given the subject but little attention entertain very erroneous ideas of the importance and value of a knowledge of the principles and practice of decoration, as applied to the products of human industry. A very little reflection, however, must convince the most utilitarian, that, in an advanced stage of society, decoration enters so fully into all works of art as to constitute, in perhaps a majority of cases, the greater part of their market value. We see the principle illustrated in the importance that is attached to surface ornamentation in the manufacture of carpets, and oil-cloths, and matting, and wall-paper, and curtains; in printed cloths, and other articles designed for dress; in crochét and tapestry work; in the elegant forms required for vases, and all crockery and earthenware; alike in the fine sculpture of the most delicate ornaments and the chiseling of stone for public and private dwellings; in all mouldings of wood, and iron, and other ornamental work in architecture; and it is found to enter into all plans and patterns of utensils and tools, and into all objects of art which may be deemed capable of improvement by giving to them increased beauty of form and proportion. Indeed, all the vast variety of form and color which we observe in the works of man, beyond the requirements of the most barren utility, is, simply, ornamentation. Beginning with the savage, with whom ornament precedes dress, it has been the study of man in all ages not only to make art beautiful, but to improve upon nature also. The