The advent of the motor car is also to some extent a factor, resulting in the town flat and country cottage, which means the abandonment of the large house and its interests and responsibilities; bringing about a change in domestic life, with the growing tendency to entertain at hotels and restaurants.
This tendency to more public life naturally results in even less interest in personal possession and environment; still further fostered by the hire-furnish system which enables its patrons to indulge in frequent change of style and locality.
Lamentable as it may seem from the artistic point of view, it certainly appears that the general public are at least apathetic, and that Art appeals less to them than the facilities for change and personal indulgence; still there is plenty of scope for the designer and producer if they adapt themselves to the everchanging conditions and requirements.
The earliest design was probably due to materialistic causes, imperfect implements and difficulties and accidents turned to account.
It is conceivable that primitive man in his early essays in pottery found extreme difficulty in obtaining a smooth surface, which, notwithstanding all endeavours, would be, in the unbaked state, sensitive to scratches and other damage. This difficulty may have suggested intentionally covering the surface with such scratches, etc., more or less arranged, thus making a virtue of necessity.
Examination of early pottery will reveal simple patterns scratched or incised, consisting mainly of straight lines arranged in zigzag or herringbone form; in some instances the pattern is apparently the result of pressure of some simple implement, resembling what is known in plastering as trowel point.
Such details are simply those that could be produced by means of some form of point, stone, stick or finger nail, and are not representative of any known form; and it is not till a much later period that any indication occurs suggestive of a growth line or natural type.
Curves seldom occur, certainly not in the scroll form, though rings singly or concentric are among the early details; but these could easily be the result of pressure by the ends of hollow reeds.
The evolute wave and scroll that figures so largely in later ornament was presumably in imitation of wire-work, forms which the material would readily suggest, particularly the continuous line of the evolute.