Ivins, William M. ""Ornament" and the Sources of Design in the Decorative Arts." Reading

Ivins starts by talking about the craftsmanship of things and what schools are teaching.  I like how he continues to go back to compare the craft to music. How people don't necessarily write the music but they can play it, just like in art. We are taught a certain technique and suppose to mimic it. There is nothing we make that hasn't been made before. Ornament's however, are made from men who have the greatest popular fame as engravers and etchers of pictorial prints, their ornaments are  "original" or variations or just mostly copies. Most ornaments are made by man, learned in the different crafts they were working in, their designs however were more for the purpose of letting it be engraved by other hands.
 But the earliest  most influential ornament, was designed by painters because the decoration on the flat surface was copied by engravers and draftsmen and it spread broadcast through the community. But that changed and then from time to time new decorative elements would appear an they were utilized and adapted  by the designers . This has lasted till present day, the great succeeding styles in any class of "work of art" being most instances either initiated or disseminated by the specialized designers. The several great styles of the English eighteenth century are not even known after the actual makers, but by the names on the pattern books.
 My favorite section of this reading is when they said "The museums here for a generation have been aware that the whole of art is not to be found in sculpture and painting, and most  important and valuable collections of furniture, woodwork, pottery, plate, and textiles have been formed at many places, notably at the Metropolitan Museum, the collections of which have been made extraordinarily rich through the generosity of the late J. Pierpont Morgan and his son. These collections are having a most gratifying effect upon the prevailing standards of craftsmanship in this country," I like how this has an effect on people because there is such a craft and skill to make furniture, woodwork, pottery, plate, and textiles.
 I agree with the author when he says ", it would seem as though the development of design in this country must of necessity fall behind the development of craftsmanship until such time as those collections are supplemented in our public institutions by collections of the drawings, prints, and book decorations made by the great masters of ornament, and the public is taught their use and value" I think it is very important for everyone to learn about the masters who have just been forgotten but techniques and crafts and designs are still used.