ABSTRACT
The desire evinced by the rudest as well as the most civilized nations for the decoration of their buildings, utensils, and clothing, almost raises ornament into a natural want, and must render its proper application of the utmost consequence to the manufacturer, since upon it the value of his manufactures in the various markets of the world greatly depends. The primary consideration of construction is so necessary to pure design, that it almost follows that, whenever style and ornament are debased, construction will be found to have been first disregarded; and that those styles which are considered the purest, and the best periods of those styles, are just those wherein constructive utility has been rightly understood and most thoroughly attended to. The proposed classification divides itself under four general heads: – Decoration of Buildings – Domestic and other Furniture – Domestic Utensils and objects of Personal Use – Garment Fabrics.
