To encaustic tile-work and its imitations the figures of snow appear peculiarly suggestive; and it is remarkable that a few of the patterns preserved to us from antiquity are exactly similar to the nuclei of some of the snow crystals. In this application, far more than in the conventional glass mosaic and its imitations of which we have been speaking, we are compelled to seek effect in symmetry of design. Necessarily excluded from imparting the idea of raised surfaces, such being inconsistent with the intention of flooring, which is to present a level surface to the eye and feet, we are also confined to a very limited range of colour, in order not to interfere with the decorations of the walls and ceilings, and the manufacture of encaustic tiles being in itself limited to the employment of but few colours. Thus excluded from the rich and subtle harmonies of colour, and the relievo of light and shade, our attention is principally directed to the design which, in regard to this application, should combine simplicity with uniformity of outline, and be easily referable to a purely geometric base. And here we may add, in regard to the figures of snow, that, whether in outline or in relievo, they are equally symmetrical. In the one case they are simply enlarged copies of the general effect to the naked eye; in the other they present to us structural details only visible by the employment of a high-power lens, or as seen by the aid of a microscope.
An equal range of adaptation is likewise open to them in regard to floor-cloth, which involves attention to the conditions above mentioned as referring to tile-work, but in a less degree, inasmuch as its more household and domestic applications allow a somewhat greater latitude in fancy and colour. As suitable for canvas, they will admit of various supplementary borderings and intricacies of pattern, conceived around them in the spirit of the original design, and serving as a means for the introduction of the colours most commonly employed in this branch of manufacture.
In regard to the figures of snow we have two distinct suggestive ideas in reference to their application,--the one, that of ingrafting them into different styles of ornament for their further extension into new forms; the other, that of their adoption to various decorative purposes now usurped by designs or patterns which, in part sanctioned by use, are greatly censurable on the grounds of fitness and taste. In the latter spirit we consider that they may be most usefully applied to paper-hangings, although of late in this branch of design there has been a manifest improvement. Not long ago the “artist” who presided over this department, and whose influence was felt more or less in every home of the kingdom, had no guide but his own ill-educated and distorted will; he threw things together without the least regard to harmony of colour, fitness of proportion, or form of any kind, and called the heterogeneous mass “a design.” Latterly he has had better opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge; but what is of far more importance, he has had better-informed critics. In some instances his task has preceded, in others it has followed, that of his customers; but assuredly we do not now often see upon our walls the monstrous perpetrations which disgraced those of our childhood. If the paper-hanger will examine this collection of suggestions from Nature--from Nature as she exhibits only one phase of grace and beauty--we feel sure that he will be at once convinced that their adoption will be of immense value to him.