Owen Jones and the Ornament of Nineveh and Persia

Illustration: Nineveh and Persian Ornament, from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, (1856).

In his 1856 book entitled The Grammar of Ornament, Owen Jones produced a chapter on the ornamentation of the ancient Assyrians and Persians. The fact that he placed this particular design style at chapter three, sandwiched between that of Egyptian decoration and Greek, says much about where Jones saw these two particular cultures in the grand history of decoration.

Jones made the assumption that Assyrian art and design work was somewhere between a copy and a degeneration of the Egyptian original. The fact that it didn't occur to him that the two styles were independent and bore no real relationship to each other, can be partly explained by an examination of the early days of Victorian archaeology. Information was not as profuse as it is today and it is perhaps understandable that wrong assumptions were drawn in the nineteenth century, as no doubt future generations will be understanding as to our own assumptions and conclusions concerning the ancient history of the Middle East. There was also a certain biblical prejudice against the Assyrians in particular that as Christians the Victorians would have possessed as part of their own cultural makeup. This would have perhaps been reflected within their overall view of Assyria, even if unconsciously.

Illustration: Nineveh and Persian Ornament, from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, (1856).

Jones in some respects purposely sandwiched Assyrian decoration between what he saw, and many of his fellow Victorians fervently believed, as the innovative and individual cultures of Egypt and Greece, both of which produced their own styles of decoration and ornamentation. Placing the derivative style of the Assyrians between the two was perhaps an opportunity to give us a lesson in creativity versus the uninventive. The fact that Jones was fundamentally wrong does not negate the interesting, but unproven chapter listing.

Interestingly Jones also tied ancient Persian decoration and ornament to that of the Assyrians, even though the cultures were separated by time, region and tradition. Because there were certain similarities in decorative motifs and colour does not necessarily tie them to the same cultural root, even though there was some reuse of decorative work between the cultures. Later on in the book, Jones gives Islamic Persian decoration a much higher profile.

Illustration: Nineveh and Persian Ornament, from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, (1856).

The fact that Jones assumed that the Assyrian, and through association Persian, decorative styles were borrowed rather than indigenous and owed nothing to the dynamism of the Assyrian and Persian cultures that we recognise today, is disappointing. In so many other chapters of his book Jones shows a confidence in his belief in the indigenous genesis of many of the cultural styles he highlights, even where there was little or no evidence to prove his point.

To be fair this belief in certain cultures being pale imitations or degenerate offspring of other worthier cultures was rife in the Victorian world and was often seen as a standard and irrefutable truth. Admittedly there are some today who still have the same beliefs, but we are perhaps much more aware today, or should be, that every culture on the planet has a uniqueness and a legitimacy all of its own and while cross-fertilization of cultures is a rich part of the complex patchwork history of humanity, it is only a part of the story and no culture can or should claim domination of identity over another.

Reference links:
The Grammar of Ornament: All 100 Color Plates from the Folio Edition of the Great Victorian Sourcebook of Historic Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
The Grammar of Ornament
Grammar of Ornament: A Monumental Work of Art
Ornamental Wall Painting In The Art Of The Assyrian Empire (Cuneiform Monographs)
Monumental Art of the Assyrian Empire: Dynamics of Composition Styles.(Review): An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society
The chronology of Neo-Assyrian art,
The Persian Empire
History of the Persian Empire (Phoenix Books)
From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire
The Persian Empire From Cyrus II to Artaxerxes I
Splendors of The Persian Empire (Timeless Treasures)
The Luck of Nineveh: In Search of the Lost Assyrian Empire
Royal correspondence of the Assyrian Empire. Translated Into English, With a Transliteration of the Text and a Commentary. Parts I, II, III, IV
Ornamental Wall Painting In The Art Of The Assyrian Empire (Cuneiform Monographs)

The Attu Basketry of the Aleutian Islands

Illustration: Types of Attu and Atka basketry work.

The Aleutian Islands are the long string of islands that travel in an arc along the bottom of the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. There are a number of communities throughout the archipelago that have been producing basketry for home consumption and outside markets for generations.

Illustration: Attu drawstring basketry design (detail).

All the basketry techniques and styles were unique to each island community; most of the baskets shown in this article derived from the western most island of the Aleutians, and indeed the westernmost point of Alaska, namely the island and community of Attu.

Attu basketry was famous from the nineteenth century onwards, particularly with a number of collectors. In some cases basketry from other islands in the Aleutian chain were mistakenly tagged with the name Attu. It is thought that this was a common mistake rather than a deliberate mislead, as the markets in the mainland US were so far away from the Aleutians that mistakes and mislabelling was common. However, many experts in the US were well aware that Attu basketry skills were probably the best and most authentic in the islands. Whether this had anything to do with the fact that Attu Island was the furthest point from American 'civilization' is an interesting one.

Illustration: Attu basketry construction.

Traditional Attu basketry used wild rye grass that grew everywhere on the islands. Harvesting, which took place in the short Alaskan summer, was not an easy process, as the grass had to be harvested meticulously as not all grass blades were suitable for basketry purposes. The grass was then slowly dried and then had to be separated into grades from coarse to fine. The grass was then dried again until ready to use. By careful harvesting and using a number of different drying techniques, different shades of grass could be used in the basketry process, thus adding an element of pattern and decoration without the need to dye the grass. Interestingly silk and worsted threads were traditionally used as part of the process of decoration, but these materials would have had to have been traded, as the islands had no domestic flocks of sheep, and certainly no direct access to silk.

Illustration: Attu basketry weaving (detail).

Most of the basketry weaving work was produced in the winter when communities were less active and there was more idle time to be filled. Although the basketry for domestic use was usually, if not totally, of a practical nature, those items for export to the US and beyond could take the form of anything from a basket to a cigarette case.

Illustration: Attu basketry cigarette case (detail).

In some respects, Attu basketry was deemed desirable because of its remoteness from the rest of the US, but this on its own would not have been enough to explain its popularity. It was also very well made, the accumulated skill of generations of basketry makers, which made the products that reached the larger external world all the more attractive because of the skill and professional finishing that was involved in this traditional craft.

Illustration: Attu basketry weaving (detail).

All of the images in this article were taken in the first decade of the twentieth century and therefore are probably closer to the uninterrupted traditional lifestyle and craft techniques and skills that made the Attu so attractive to outsiders.

Illustration: Attu basketry construction.

Basketry is still produced throughout the Aleutians. An interesting selection of which can be seen on the Museum of the Aleutians website, along with a number of other museum exhibits. The website can be found here.

There is also a website run by the people of Attu, which gives information on the human and natural history of the island. Their website can be found here.

Further reading links:
Museum of the Aleutians
Attu Island Website
Basketry of the Aleutian Island
Baleen Basketry of the North Alaskan Eskimo
Spruce root basketry of the Alaska Tlingit
Photo Native basketry 1900
Alaska Indian Basketry (Shorey Indian Series)
Alaska Basketry (1917)
American Indian Basketry: Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut Basketry of Alaska: Vol II, No 2, Whole Issue No 6)
Aleut Basketry Collection of the Alaska State Museum (Technical paper number 10. October 1999)
American Indian Basketry (Magazine): Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut Basketry of Alaska. No. 6 (II)
Emmons's notes on Field Museum's collection of Northwest Coast basketry (Fieldiana)
A proposed glossary of spruce root basketry terms (Concepts, technical paper)
Spruce Root Basketry of the Alaska Tling
Sitka spruce roots used in basketry: By A.S. Harris (Concepts, technical paper)
The basketry of the Tlingit (American Museum of Natural History. Memoirs)

Later Northern Russian Embroidery

Although the skill of embroidery is often thought to be a craft tradition that is firmly ensconced in that of the past rather than the present or future, embroiderers themselves have always been aware of and used contemporary themes within their work. For us today, these themed embroidery designs can be an interesting and sometimes valuable lesson in social and design history.

All of the design work shown here is part of the exhibition shown by the Soviet Union at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris. Compared to the previous post on Northern Russian embroidery which showed the traditional pattern work that was used extensively throughout the region from a far earlier period, these pieces tend to show aspects of Northern Russia from a much later period. They incorporate aspects of everyday life, motifs and emblems from the Russian Empire including images of the church, landed gentry and peasantry and the Romanoff double-headed eagle. However, also included in the exhibition was embroidery work produced in early Soviet era Russia as well, with images portraying factories, workers and cars.

This later contemporary themed embroidery work does not necessarily dominate the production of the craft during this period, as traditional older design work, including the red thread dominated embroidery work of Central Russia, was still being produced in relatively large quantities. There would also have been examples of early Soviet and Bolshevik embroidered propaganda banners that were used in marches both before and after the revolution. This was very much in the same manner as the Trade Union and Suffragette banners that were often embroidered by women and could be seen across Europe and North America, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The pieces shown here though not political in form would still have complimented the tradition of embroidery and been added to the overall library of design work that was such a vital part of the craft. This library of mostly amateur inspired work, none of which was written or copied down, but was instead passed as a memory from generation to generation, is an invaluable illustration of both the history of the craft and the history of those involved with the craft, usually unknown women.

During the peak of the European Arts & Crafts movement, a number of avid collectors started to procure examples of mainly rural crafts. It was these particular traditions that were most in need of either protection or at least documentation, as the drift towards regular employment in large towns and cities across Europe was seeing the demise of many of these long term and multi-generational rural craft disciplines, including that of embroidery. Luckily, many of these collections that were put together by the nineteenth century Russian middle classes and aristocracy, survived the Revolution and became important additions to a number of state museum collections, where luckily for us they still remain today.

Further reading links:
Russian Punchneedle Embroidery
Russian and Other Slavic Embroidery Designs
Early Russian Embroidery in the Zagorsk Museum Collection
Russian Embroidery and Lace
Russian Embroidery Book
La Broderie Russe Ancienne (Ancient Russian Embroidery)
Russian Embroidery 17th-Early 20th Centuries
RUSSIAN EMBROIDERY: TRADITIONAL MOTIFS
Russian embroidery patterns
Ancient Russian Ecclesiastical Embroideries
Russian Knot Embroidery Craft Book
Antique Russian Embroidery
Pearl embroidery in Russia. Avenue / Zhemchuzhnoe shite na Rusi. Prospekt
Embroidery Icons, towels, A r / Vyshivka ikon, rushnikov, pokrovtsov