The Influence of Persian Decorative Creativity

Illustration: Persian manuscript page.

The influence of Islamic decoration on the decorative arts of Europe has been both fundamental and long-standing. From the early medieval period onwards the influence on European surface pattern in particular, has been an important element both as an inspiration and as a developmental tool. The interaction between southern Europe and North Africa for example, proved to be creatively inspiring, producing an inter-locking cultural mix of Islamic, Classical and Christian motifs and pattern work that was to produce some of the most important developments in textile pattern work.

By the nineteenth century one of the main areas of intrigue and fascination for Europeans involved in the decorative arts was that of Persia, modern day Iran. The history of the decorative arts in Islamic Persia was considered by many Europeans to be of fundamental importance, with highly sophisticated decorative work that could do nothing but be inspirational to designers in Europe. The extension of the Persian culture into Northern India through the Moghul Empire had proved to be particularly inspirational to the British who came into direct contact with the cultural heritage through their assimilation of India. It was this combination of Persian and Northern Indian decorative work that proved to be so inspirational to a number of British designers.

Illustration: Indo-Persian manuscript border designs.

Decorative pattern work in Islam came in many forms and tended to be spread across most of the decorative art disciplines. It was therefore used on an inspirational level within European industries that supplied the growing interiors market. Ceramics and textiles proved to be particular beneficiaries in the latter half of the nineteenth century with both disciplines producing a formidable amount of work, both obvious and subtle, with Britain being particularly susceptible to the style.

Islamic decoration tends to be perceived as following two main themes geometric and floral, and while this is true to a certain extent, there is a complexity to the culture, one that has incorporated a number of different regional and cultural themes, that makes this too simplistic, but sometimes useful when dealing with the larger themes of pattern work. Interestingly, of the two perceived themes, the British in the nineteenth century tended more towards the floral than the geometrical, despite the persistent persuasion of such critics as Owen Jones who saw the fundamental and varied building blocks of the geometrical as a perfect vocabulary for an endless complexity of pattern.   

 Illustration: Persian manuscript page.

All of the illustrations shown in this article are facsimiles of historical Persian manuscripts that were reproduced for a European audience to both marvel at and see as being potentially inspirational. In some respects, they were produced as an historical and cultural evaluation of Persia, but they were also an obvious portfolio of possible decorative techniques for use in contemporary European pattern work. The percentage of active inspiration depended on both the individual designer and the company involved. William Morris for example, was both intrigued and inspired by Persian and Moghul decorative qualities and techniques, but did not actively copy any of the results that he came across in his research. However, his surface pattern work in both printed textiles and carpet design did use some of the general techniques that could be found in Persian floral decoration. It is sometimes not always the direct approach to observational inspiration that is the most useful; often it is the slow and almost sub-conscious result that proves to be the most rewarding. However, others were more aware of the direct allure of what was termed as the 'Orient' and its potential for profits, and therefore a much closer observational inspiration was chosen.

Whichever path proved to be the most profitable, the creative or material, or even a combination of both, Persian and Moghul elements seeped into the decorative format of nineteenth century British decoration. So much so that the imported style can be seen as being an intrinsic part of many of the formats and disciplines that made up the decorative arts, from textiles to ceramics, and from illustration to metalwork. Some of the decorative inspiration is practically and blatantly obvious as in the output of Liberty for example, while some is much less so and forms a foundational level, as in the case of Morris and Co. 

 Illustration: Persian manuscript page.

However, no matter what the level of inspiration, it is fascinating to evaluate the influences and cultural overlaps that are always such a part of the history of decoration. It is intriguing to see the historical possibilities that may have been produced between the creativity of two different cultures in different parts of the world. The creative connections formed by Britain from that of Iran, many of which were not necessarily consciously achieved, show how important this form of cultural fermentation has been in the development of the decorative arts in general and in that of Britain specifically, an island that has always had a natural tendency to absorb decorative formats, embellish even transform them and then redirect them for both domestic and external markets. It is this form of creativity that perhaps lies at the heart of Britain's nineteenth century relationship with both Iran and its Moghul extension in British India.

Further reading links:

Persian Styled Print by Inglis & Wakefield

Illustration: Inglis & Wakefield. Persian styled pattern block print, 1849.

Indian and Persian textile design work has proved popular in Britain from the seventeenth century onwards. They were consistently used to such an extent that they could honestly be considered as an integral part of British decorative arts history. They were consumed as both costume and furnishing fabrics and were produced in prodigious amounts as printed and woven fabrics.

Although large amounts of textiles were imported directly from source in what is now Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, attempts were made in Britain by a number of companies to produce styled, though not necessarily copies, of textiles from the source nations and regions. Many of these if worked successfully, sometimes proved even as popular as the imported versions.

The example illustrating this article was produced by the English company Inglis & Wakefield in 1849. It is a block print supposedly based on an original Persian design, though could well have been constructed in England as a composite of various Indian and Persian examples. Interestingly it seems to be firmly based on a woven construct, even though it is most definitely printed. There were a number of critics of the period who were concerned that crossovers between woven and printed textiles did not always work as both disciplines arrived at textiles from very different start points. Henry Cole in his Journal of Design and Manufactures drew attention to the issue of printed and woven textiles. In an 1849 issue, the magazine openly questioned a group of Indian and Persian styled fabrics of which this particular Inglis & Wakefield design was a part. 

'It is curious that these printed imitations of Persian or Indian patterns continue to have given to them the same regular treatment of lines necessary to the woven fabrics, for which they were first designed, where the form altars thread by thread, and it is worth while to consider whether this peculiarity conduces to their beauty or merely to their imitative association.'

Having said that, the magazine was also at pains to state that good design work could always be produced if certain elements were set in place. These design elements could give,

'...the same distributive treatment of the same rich full colours, added to the more flowing forms attainable by printing, would give much novelty, while the beauty resulting from the Indian principle of design would remain.'

The 'Indian principle of design' is an important point to be made when considering this particular design, but also that of the larger British textile design industry as a whole. Traditional Indian textile design work, whether printed, woven or embroidered, was considered to be consistently successful by many British design and decoration critics, particularly during this period of the mid-nineteenth century. It was often held up as a supreme example of the working virtues of the Design Reform movement. Many true examples of Indian work, rather than copies or re-imaginings, were praised in Britain as being probably the best contemporary examples of textile design then available. Compositional balance, harmony of colour, honesty to materials all were seen as essential to good design work. These were also seen to be core values of both the Design Reformers and later that of the English Arts & Crafts movement. 

Critics of British design manufacturing and the retail trade that it supplied were lucky enough to have a large supply of prime examples of contemporary Indian textile design in which to prove the justification for a well-balanced and harmonious attitude towards decoration and pattern work. It gave them a much-needed physical and technical guidance in which to strengthen their argument as to the more dubious outpourings from the British textile industry. 

However, as the Journal of Design and Manufactures reports, there was some debate as to whether pattern design based on Persian and Indian examples was truly being used by elements of the British textile industry as a clear indication of design reform, or whether as suspected by many, it was merely an intrinsic part of the need for both fashion and novelty by the general public, and the desire of industry and the retail trade to fuel and expand those needs.

The issue of good design versus immediate novelty through fashion is a long argued one that derives directly from the mid-nineteenth century. This is an issue that still plagues us today over a century and a half later. If anything it is perhaps even more acute in our own contemporary world considering the accumulation of problems that we are having to at least address, if not solve. Many of these derive directly from the industrialization of craft in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and the resulting industrialization of the retail market. More importantly, it also saw the industrialisation of the needs of the individual, creating an artificially constant consumer market that could never be satiated.

However, the fact that Indian textile pattern work was used directly, along with other more diverse and far ranging examples, both contemporary and traditional, is an important reminder of how intrinsically entwined Indian crafts, both decorative and ornamental, were in the more general world of the British decorative arts. It is also a reminder of the influence India had on the much more specific and pioneering worlds of the Design Reform and Arts & Crafts movements. Movements that were to fundamentally change many aspects of British design, decoration and craft, throughout much of the latter nineteenth century and well into the twentieth.

Further reading links:
Indian Textiles (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Traditional Indian Textiles
Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West
Tradition and Beyond: Handcrafted Indian Textiles
Textile Arts of India
Threads & Voices: Behind the Indian Textile Tradition
Rajasthan
Costumes and Textiles of Royal India
Paisleys and Other Textile Designs from India (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Textiles and Dress of Gujarat
How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500-1850 (Global Economic History Series)
Cloth and Commerce: Textiles in Colonial India
Ralli Quilts: Traditional Textiles from Pakistan and India
Woven Wonder: The Tradition of Indian Textiles (Eternal India)
Textiles and Weavers in Medieval South India (Oxford India Paperbacks)
Chintz and Cotton India's Textile Gift to the World

Les Ornements de la Perse

Illustration: Manuscript page, from Les Ornements de la Perse by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont, 1882.

In 1882, Les Ornements de la Perse was published in France. It was produced by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont and was part of a general European trend to both document and understand the major and minor decorative cultural styles of the world. Islamic pattern work came in for much attention due to a number of factors including the increasingly aggressive European influence on the Turkish Empire and its provinces leading to a point where France become de facto ruler of much of North Africa. Further east the expansion of Russian influence in Central Asia and the British in India brought both Empires face to face in Iran. Each Empire aggressively forced increasingly unrealistic and unfair concessions from Iran, which had to acquiesce in order not to be divided up between Britain and Russia, as had so many other nations throughout the region.

Illustration: Manuscript page, from Les Ornements de la Perse by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont, 1882.

These and other factors gave increasingly liberal access to European explorers, designers, architects and collectors some of whom admittedly were interested in the novel and exotic. However, others were genuinely interested in the factors that went to make up design, decoration and ornamentation in what had previously been areas of the world with limited or no easy access to Europeans.

With so many publications being produced during the nineteenth century on Islamic decoration, sometimes more emphasis is placed on the authors and their European country of origin than the subject matter that they published. It is always hard to strike the right balance but it seems perhaps because of the beauty of the plates and their subject matter, it would be preferable in this case to concentrate on the illustrations from Les Ornements de la Perse.

Illustration: Borders from manuscript pages, from Les Ornements de la Perse by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont, 1882.

Of the five examples shown in this article three are illustrations of Persian manuscripts, one of a carpet border design and one more showing a decorative panel of a door. These beautiful plates give at least some indication of both the range and technical skills that were available throughout the Islamic history of Iran. All are well balanced, harmonious and have a particular penchant for the use of floral motifs and pattern work that has made the Iranian decorative arts leaders not only in the Islamic world, but in the world in general. Designers and decorators across Europe used Iranian decorative styling across a number of disciplines, but particularly in ceramics, textiles, wallpapers and even book and metalwork design.

Islamic design, architecture and pattern work have been inextricably entwined with European architecture and decorative arts for so long that it is sometimes difficult to extricate and examine the obvious. Two simple examples are the Gothic pointed arch which is widely thought to have first originated with Islamic architecture, although there is still reluctance in certain quarters of Europe to admit to such, another being the more obvious arabesque which has been used constantly throughout European decorative arts history. There are a number of other examples some of which are long-standing while others are more recent developments.

Illustration: Border of carpet given by a Shah of Persia to Louis XIV of France, from Les Ornements de la Perse by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont, 1882.

Owen Jones and William Morris were particularly interested in Islamic pattern styling for their different approaches to pattern and for that reason they were interested in different geographical areas or historical eras of Islam for their inspiration. Jones was interested in developing the idea of pure geometry as a working contemporary base for pattern work. Therefore, he was much more interested in the purer abstract styling of Islamic non-representational work. However, Morris with his lifelong interest in the dimension that the natural world could instil in contemporary pattern work was far more interested in Islamic decoration as interpreted through Iran. Looking at the illustrations shown in this article it is not surprising that Morris found affinity with the complex floral pattern work that is so much a part of Iranian styling. Morris himself tended towards the North Indian interpretation of Iranian decorative arts, but this was not so much a preference as a practical development as Morris spent long hours at the South Kensington Museum which had an increasingly large and developed collection of Islamic decoration from British India.

It is unknown whether Jones or Morris had a copy of Les Ornements de la Perse, although Morris did have a copy of Jones The Grammar of Ornament. However, what is certain is that publications like this one were important factors in extending the vocabulary of decoration and ornament. It must also have made it increasingly clear to those who critically leafed through books such as Les Ornaments de la Perse that decoration and pattern is a complex subject with many overlapping and borrowed innovations and general styling, an increasing number of which were to be designated as originating outside of the European sphere.

Illustration: Reposse work from a door of the College of Shah Sultan Hussein in Isfahan,  from Les Ornements de la Perse by Eugene Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont, 1882.

It is perhaps wise for us to see the contribution that the decorative arts of Iran had not only on the general region that today's Iran occupies, but on a much wider scale which would include both the Islamic and European cultural regions. These illustrations can only give a glimpse as to the importance that Iran played in the development of pattern, decoration and ornament. That it has indeed been a vital factor in the journey towards today's contemporary pattern work, should go without saying.

I have used the term Iran throughout this article rather than Persia, even though the 1882 book title gives the name Perse. I hope this does not lead to any confusion.

Reference links:
Islamic Decoration and Ornament as seen by Owen Jones
Persian Ceramic Designs (International Design Library)
Persian carpet designs to color (The International design library)
Persian Designs (Design Source Book)
Persian Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftsmen (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Persian Textile Designs (The International Design Library)
Indian and Persian Textile Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Full-Color Electronic Design)
Persian Textiles and Their Technique From the Sixth to the Eighteenth Centuries Including a System for General Textile Classification
Western Persian Textiles 18th-20th Centuries
Persian Needlework (Soozandoozi haie sonati Iran)
Persian Calligraphic Designs
Persian Ceramics: From the Collections of the Asian Art Museum
Persian Ceramics: 9th - 14th Century
Persian Rugs and Carpets: The Fabric of Life