THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEXTILE PATTERNS IN FORMER CENTURIES.

PROF. PAUL SCHULZE, Director of the Royal Textile Museum at Crefeld, Germany.

A German proverb says: "Kleider machen Leute," which is equivalent to the English: "Fine feathers make fine birds". Another proverb runs: "We receive a man according to his dress, and dismiss him according to his intellect". Accordingly we find that it is a first principle in human nature to take special care as regards the attiring of the human body. Savages only make a modest attempt by tattooing their bodies, while the civilized. nations of all ages and countries have made an art of dressing themselves in splendid and rich costumes. This endeavor gave birth to an industry, which up to our days has contributed in no slight degree to the prosperity of many towns and countries. I mean textile industry.

It is not my purpose to read a lecture upon the history and development of art and industry; my particular object is to give a very general summary of the evolution of textile design from the earliest times, and to show how many interesting details can be supplied by such an apparently insignificant subject as that of woven designs.

With regard to the period at which our investigations should commence, it might be considered that the art of usefully applying such perishable materials as the fragments of flax, the wool of sheep and the fine thread spun by the silkworm, dates from no very distant time; but that is a great mistake. We should be wrong in dating the birth of the textile industry at the com

mencement of the Christian Era. We should be equally in error if we placed this period 1000 years further back to the time when Greek art was not yet spoken of, much less European culture. We can with confidence go back still 3000 years farther, that is in all 6000 years from the present time. Monuments of this early period prove to us that even then, there was a culture in ancient Egypt which did not exclude the existence of a textile industry; on the contrary, its existence may be proved with almost certainty.

About the year 4000 B. C., King Mena is said to have reigned over Egypt. He was accused by his successor of having enervated his people by excessive luxury. He was cursed by the priests (which also may be taken as a token of civilization) and this curse was engraved upon a square stone. GEORGE EBERS, the German author, informs us how King Teta's mother occupied herself with the study of physic and concocted a lotion to make the hair grow. Now I think I may fairly conclude that a race of people, who were in need of some means to make the hair grow more freely than in the natural condition, would not have neglected the protection and adornment of the other parts of the body; hence, the existence of textile industry may be easily inferred.

In a series of centuries we find that forms of certain animals, plants, etc., which were deemed sacred to religious service, were used symbolically for the designs for clerical vestments and antipendiums. Hence, it is probable that the Egyptians likewise used the forms of their holy animals and plants. I might, therefore, name some of the principal types which form the basis of Egyptian ornament.

First there are the buds and flowers of the lotus and papyrus plants, which were the symbol of the nourishment of the body and mind. Then the dung beetle or "scarabeus". This insect has the remarkable habit of laying its eggs in excrement, with which it envelopes the egg, forming a little ball. The beetle draws this ball after it with its hind legs until the surface hardens. The ball, containing the embryo of a new life, which the heat of the sun will awaken, was to the Egyptians symbolical of the globe, out of which new life would spring, and resembled on a very much smaller scale the work of the Creator.

The ancient Egyptians being sun worshippers, their most

sacred figure was the disc of the sun, mounting the sky on eagle wings. The Uraus serpent was the symbol of sovereignty in command over life and death. Besides these many animals were sacred.

Another ancient state possessing culture was that of Assyria. The territory between the great rivers Euphrates and Tigris was in early times the home of extensive industrial art. The Bible mentions the magnificence of old Babylon. Its circumference is said to have been about 40 miles.

In the ruins of great Assyrian buildings were found plates made of alabaster which were used for covering the walls. The prowess of the kings was chiselled into these plates. They give us plenty of clues to a textile industry; thus we are able to

ascertain perfectly well the manner in which the Assyrians made. patterns for dresses, carpets and antipendiums.

On these plates [Fig. 2] the Assyrians are represented as being dressed in long loose gowns with fringes, and embroidered to represent beasts fighting, fantastic forms of animals, bodies of lions with human heads and wings, human bodies with wings. and birds' heads.

A drawing shows us a piece of the dress of an Assyrian king when sitting upon his throne. In the circles surrounded with palmettos and pomegranates, the tree of life is standing, above which is the disc of the sun with eagle wings. The figures are kings and priests, and those with wings are cherubim with human and eagle heads. The lions with wings probably represent subordinate gods.

A very characteristic ornament was the Holy tree, the tree of life, which bears fruit like pomegranates. The pomegranate plays a large part in the symbolism of many heathen as well as in the Christian religions. In ancient times it was the symbol of love. Jupiter makes the bridal Juno taste of pomegranates. Leah wanted to buy the love of Jacob, who loved Rachel better than her, with love-apples, the smell of which animates love. And lastly the apple was the forbidden fruit of Paradise.

The Bible makes mention of weavings of an Assyrian character. Moses says of the makers of the ten large tapestries of the tabernacle which were ornamented with cherubim, "Them hath God filled with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work, of the engraver and of the cunning workman and of the embroiderer in blue and in purple, in scarlet and in fine linen, and of the weaver." (Exodus xxxv, 35.)

About the official dress made for Aaron, Moses says: "And they did beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen with cunning work. And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet and twined linen." (Exodus xxxix, 3, 24.)

A third great state of ancient culture in the far east of Asia