The New Book of Chinese Lattice Designs
Description
Chinese craft design excelled in the manipulation of geometric space and reached its highest point in the design of window lattices on Chinese houses. Long recognized as an important folk art, window lattices have been generally neglected as an art form and this book is the first work on the subject since the 17th century. Fortunately, it is also the definitive work on the subject, and though no book can present a complete coverage of Chinese lattice, this book is a great classic study and an incredibly rich source of design for Westerners.
More than 1200 designs are shown here, arranged in a clear system of classification that includes 22 areas of related design — borders, brackets, tail pieces, and so on. The lattices are classified according to one basic figure or concept, and the hundreds of beautiful design variations fall into only 26 categories: parallelogram, octagon or octagon square, hexagon, single focus frames, double focus frames, triple focus frames, quintuple focus frames, no focus frames, wedge-lock, presentation, out-lock, in-out bound, the Han line, parallel waves, opposed waves, recurving wave, loop-continued, like swastikas (a Buddhist symbol), unlike swastikas, central Ju I, allover Ju I, S-scroll, U-scroll, rustic ice-ray, symmetrical ice-ray, and square and round. Each category is introduced in sections at the front. In addition, there is usually a short description for each design and every design is designated by name, location, and approximate date of construction.
Professor Dye spent over 21 years studying and copying lattices all over China, and because of the ravages of time and changing cultural values, this collection can probably never be duplicated. Balanced, intricate, sometimes asymmetrical, usually harmonious, these lattice designs present a wealth of material for the Western commercial artist, textile designer, pattern-maker, and craftsman. Reflecting their Chinese heritage, these designs are universal and can be used almost anywhere.
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Chinese Lattice Designs - Daniel Sheets Dye
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TECHNIQUE OF CONSTRUCTION
This section is based on the practice in Chengtu, Szechwan; but it holds true for all parts of China before 1900 A.D. Although the writer has had experience in directing Chinese carpenters in making foreign furniture, designing Chinese furniture, repairing Chinese buildings, erecting other buildings, and incorporating lattice of his own design both in Chinese buildings and in quasi-Chinese ones, he believes it more profitable to describe the procedure followed in erecting a building opposite his own door almost twenty years ago. This story forms a necessary background for understanding the technique of lattice construction.
The foreign architect-builder in this instance drew the plan of the building with Chinese features. He then purchased materials of stone, brick, lime, and several kinds of lumber in logs and had them delivered on the site. The materials were surrounded by a wall and watched night and day. He then engaged coolies, stone-cutters, brick masons, carpenters, and sawyers, by inviting in headmen in the several trades — who later called in members of their respective guilds. The artisans came in pairs, a master mechanic and his apprentice, — and their numbers were increased or decreased from week to week, depending upon how well the work was synchronized. The builder each Saturday night settled with the various headmen for the number of days' work of their crews.
While the masons were working on the walls, the sawyers were whipsawing the lumber used in the building, whether for the roof, joists, frames, doors, windows, or lattice grilles. The materials may be dry or they may be green, hardwood or soft wood, but these sawyers must whipsaw them all. West China sawyers whipsaw the timber sidewise, but in other provinces it is done vertically.
The carpenters put up the framing for the roof, the joists, the partitions, and the frames of the doors and windows. Before much lumber was spoiled they were told that Chinese V-joining was not desired, in framing or in doors. They proceeded to lath, as well as to design door patterns, to put down flooring, and then to plane the floor flat after the plastering had been finished. Then the windows with their frames to fit the openings were made on the site. After a glazier had cut the glass to fit the openings, the panes were set with wood-oil and lime well pounded together.
Towards the end of the long-drawn-out process of finishing the building, lattice windows were inserted where needed. The head carpenter called in an especially skillful craftsman to lay out the work. He came with his birdcage, which he hung up in one corner of an unfinished room in the new building, where he proceeded to arrange a draughting board
which he planed from rough lumber. He next measured the window openings and laid out a full-size window on this work table. This design was his combined blueprint and working drawing. He used India ink (which the Chinese have employed with the hair-brush pen for centuries) and a peculiar bamboo pen. This is a thin splint of bamboo ten inches long, a half-inch wide, and an eighth of an inch thick. It is split lengthwise at one end into slivers smaller than toothpicks, which are left attached to the splint. These are so beveled that the slivers hold the ink by capillary attraction and leave a clean-cut mark close to the carpenter's square (used as a straight-edge or drawing guide). The pen is inked from a bamboo cup filled with ink-soaked rags.
The artisan is now ready for the window bar material which had been prepared by a master carpenter and his apprentice. They rip these out of the whipsawed boards and plane them down to the proper dimensions. The designer then marks out lengths and joints by measurement and by contact with the working drawing
on the board. He then passes the window material back to the master-carpenter, piece by piece, marked for the final work of fashioning mortise and tenon, and of fitting and gluing. He continues this process for each window of this size and pattern until he has as many teams of master carpenter and apprentice working as there are windows of this particular size. Next he planes off the working drawing and lays out the next size of window pattern, continuing thus until the work is finished. Meanwhile the canary in its cage sings now and again to the roomful of men in general and to the artisan in particular as he lays out the work.
The carpenters, as they finished cutting, mortising, and fitting the bars, joined them together. In the case of the elephant-trunk (end) or lozenge pattern, one set of parallel bars were cut out half depth at the intersections with the other set of parallels, which were also cut half through (but on the opposite side) so as to join with the first set. These were then skillfully joined so that the intersections were tight and snug. Both front and back were slightly planed to make flat surfaces. The carpenter then marked out the outer rough ends of the bars with an ink line (similar to a chalk line, but fine as a thread) and made tenons, the frame being mortised to fit them. The parts were fitted together, taken apart, glued together, clamped by an improvised vise of notched boards and wedges, and set aside to dry. The next day the whole was smoothed and planed to fit the window casing and then sandpapered
with an equisetum or scouring rush that comes from the marches of Eastern Tibet. Thus each lattice window is an individual affair.
In the case of certain triangular patterns the three sets of parallel bar systems must each be cut two-thirds through at the intersections. Thus the horizontal bars have notches one-third of the thickness of the bar in depth taken out of both front and back of the bar. Then the diagonal bars at the back must have two-thirds of their front edges cut away at the intersections. The other set of diagonals at the front must have two-thirds of the back cut away. Yet the three sets of bars are so joined as to have structural strength and to withstand thrust. The joints are so snug that the entire three sets of bars combine to withstand thrust at any one point, and all bars are in the same
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