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An anecdote by Arnold Schoenberg; illustrating the necessity of ornamentation:

“I had to drop a new watch several times before it occurred to me, why I kept dropping it. It slipped through my fingers because, although it was modern, it was too smooth.”

(Charles van den Eycken)
“Then I understood that the casing of my old watch was engraved so that, because of its fairly rough surface, it would be easier to hold on to.”

(Hall Groat II)
“As a contrast to this hatred of ornament, note the bookbinders‘ love of ornament. They apparently consider the binding nothing more than a decoration of the book; and perhaps they like it, they think it is 'artistic', only when they can regard most of what they produce...
...as decoration, hence, as senseless. Thus, for example, they glue onto the ends of the book a 'ready-woven' headband, which looks 'more beautiful' than the sewn, 'hand-stitched' ones but does not fulfil its purpose, does not hold the book together at top and bottom.
...The purpose is unclear to them, hence unimportant.”

From: “A theory of Harmony” chapter XVII

(Photographs of headbands from the University of Adelaide)
(Book binding for a “Book of Hours“ by Gruel et Engelmann and Paris jeweller Alexis Falize)
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