Evening star., 1923-03-25


, may have been worn in the crusades,
he found craven a pattern Of Won
! derful beauty. which he took just
as it was. Not only was this pre-
cisely what he wanted. but the way
the armor was laced gave him a
needle stitch of which he has made
good use.
HFTEN the connection is much
" more remote, but this sort of
transition is going on all the time. Gray
sport ribbons worn at Palm Beach this
season and TO be seen later at many a
summer resort get their design and even
their colorings from old Persian lac
quered book covers.
American rugs woven in Massachu-
setts are translations of millef1eurs
tapestries which may have delighted
French court, and tapestries from
New Jersey looms.derive their design
from Italian gesso-covered and
painted picture frames.
Photograph cabinets in the living
room of today may seem to have little
to do with chapels built centuries ago
in the English countryside. but their
graceful gothic lines come from such
source. And wall paper is made in
Brooklyn whose patterns were on
ecclesiastical vestments which may
have seen the struggle between
Guelph and Ghibelline.
Connecticut shops make painted
furniture whose symmetry and grace
are taken from oriental pottery per-
There is delicate beauty in Russian
laces of other centuries. whose tracery
adds distinction to American dec
grated porcelain. And printed voiles
of 1923 owe their loveliness to old
Florentine glass bottles.
Rugs Of ancient India furnish fig
ures which appear on cotton blankets
woven in Rhode Island. The artisan
of long ago who fashioned Turkish
brass now treasured would find many
familiar line and scroll in Ameri-
can silver. and his handiwork has as
well been adapted to figured cretonne
in twentieth century America.
Advertising designs, covers for
booklets. even street car cards and
soap wrappers and perfume labels
day for their artistic inspiration. Old
FRENCH wood carvings supply 1t, and
so do Egyptian costumes Of a period
long before Tutankhamen. Budd-
hist statuettes carved centuries since
in an Asiatic monastery, musical in
struments of the middle ages and
Japanese prints from the times of
the Samurai.
One never knows what museum
piece. which has persisted through
untold years because art is long may
catch the eye Of the designer Of today
| as he wanders through the galleries
in search of ideas, motives, color
| combinations.
He is in the midst of work of last
ing quality by artists and craftsmen
| of bygone eras which can but inspire
him to new expressions of beauty
| albeit his medium may be utterly
different from the object which
quickens his imagination.
THE Metropolitan Museum Of Art
L which is by way Of being a ma
tional institution and is one Of the
few great museums Of the world, has
led in opening its treasures to prac-
tical workers. but is by no means
! alone in this. Indeed, the Boston Mu-
scum Of Fine Arts was first to have
a museum instructor to interpret Its
| collections. The Cleveland museum
does most effective work along such
lines. We have in this country some
sixty art museums, and not one but
what does more or less educational
work. $3.50. ..,.
| The Metropolitan goes in more ex-
tensively for decorative arts than
any Of the rest, and decorative art Is
! industrial art. It even maintains a
liaison officer, whose official title is
! associate in industrial art. He makes
the contact between the museums
collections and industry. and COM
merce, even going out into factory
and workshop to find ways in which
the museum can be of greater
service.
mo figurehead is more hollow" he
says. than this limited conception
of the fine arts. and never did man
devise a more solemnly ridiculous
ritual than that used in their wor-
ship"
Today it 10 the thought Of MUSEUM
lo0icialA- that-an mnSeuua Is -HoEth