NURSERY WALL COVERINGS

                    IN INDIAN DESIGNS


HE accompanying illustrations for
        nursery wall-coverings are pre-
        sented by The Craftsman with an
        educational as well as an artistic
purpose. They are based upon North
American Indian decorative motifs, which
offer rich opportunities in both symbolism
and ornament. These motifs, known and
valued by ethnologists, have been neglected
by artists. But they are worthy to be
ranked with the Briton and


Celtic systems, which are now
in active, enthusiastic revival
in England, furthered alike
by the guilds and by individ-
ual artists and   craftsmen.
'The pages of Racinet and of
Owen Jones are brilliant with
the ornament of the barbarous
Gaul and Teuton. They show
the textiles and the elaborate-
ly incised war-clubs of the
savages of Oceanica; while
the basketry and pottery of
the red races of America re-
ceive  adequate   illustration
only in the reports of the
Government Bureau of Eth-
nology, and are therefore lit-
tle known save to the learned
few. Pictographs are one of
the most fruitful primary
sources of historic knowledge,
and those originating among


the New World, are as eloquent as those
which were composed in the Nile valley, even
if they reveal the spirit of a far less gifted
race. The fact remains that they are re-
plete with nature-worship. They are the
external signs of occult forces and things,
which attract for the very reason that they
are secret. They belong to our own coun-
try, and are a part of our historical in-
heritance; so that the same spirit which


†C4 ~,L  atttll tnt IAIClt liicaaa l J ik ,-t ....,-


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e e ements