Purchasers of Oriental rugs fifty years ago secured many in which patterns were true to tribal distinctions, and such are to-day hidden away in the homes of Europe and America, waiting for intelligent recognition. Such possessions hold an "open sesame power which may lead some future student into the great labyrinth of speculation, out of which it is hardly possible to escape without an opinion. This view of the subject should lead each individual to make an intelligent study of those objects over which he is custodian, and the claims of such should be considered, as they, unlike books about them, are objective and should be allowed to speak for themselves. The varying opinions of those whose conclusions we respect, in regard to the migration of pattern, lead to two important points of view. Some hold that pattern was independently discovered by all primitive peoples, while others insist that earlier civilization invented, and later peoples carried symbolic decoration from one to the other. Whichever is true of the beginning of things we may leave to learned authorities to decide; but for light on the subject at hand we have to consider both the patterns that we can trace to migration, and those that have arisen in answer to the needs and beliefs of individual nations; for our study is of the use of pattern, not of its birth, and as we advance we must learn to follow the advice of Emerson, who says: "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." *** ** "A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages." WE find ourselves face to face with the necessity of more careful examination of patterns and designs in rugs, as some knowledge of these subjects is absolutely necessary before we are fully equipped to subdivide. the five great classes and proceed with our analytical study. Our avowed method is to deal with what we see, and through it to be led back to that which anteceded it, basing pattern upon symbol, and symbol upon human thought, instead of trying to find in pattern something to fit a preconceived notion, or to illustrate some thought to which it bears no possible relation. The patterns on rugs are to be studied after methods and materials have been thoroughly investigated, and the advice which all collectors should heed as they approach the study of design is to "make haste very slowly," avoiding all effort to force the eye to see what does not exist, and to twist the designs of adventition into those that show deliberate intention. RUG-PLATE XIII 66 ISPAHAN RUG Loaned by Mr. James W. Ellsworth "THE ORIENTAL EXPERT'S DESCRIPTION HIS seventeenth-century Ispahan rug was originally surrounded by a wide border of conventionalized palmate forms, which, being more worn than the rest of the rug, has been removed, leaving only the narrow guard stripe as finish. "A variety of tree and plant forms crowd each other upon the well-covered field of the rug, making in very truth a woven garden.” S. S. Costikyan. |