Art deco became widespread in architecture, interior design including furniture and dishes, clothing, jewelry, poster art, and practically any art form. It started in Europe, but was used even more in United States.

It drew widely on many forms of art from past: Oriental and Middle Eastern art (including Egyptian), Greek and Roman works, Mayan shapes and designs. But it was considered extremely modern and used many machine and automobile design elements like wheels and gears. Rooted in some of avant-garde painting styles of era, art deco is characterized by abstraction, distortion, and simplification. Very intense colors were common, as were geometric shapes.

The history of dragons goes back at least six thousand years, and there are dragon tales and legends from every continent except Antarctica. In some places, dragons have been considered helpful to people -- they were national symbol of China -- but in European history, they have generally been considered to be evil, often hoarding treasure or about to devour a fair maiden. Men who succeeded in slaying one have generally been acclaimed as heroes and saints. Some famous dragon-slayers include Siegfried, Sigmund, Beowulf, Arthur, Tristram, Lancelot, Saint Michael, and Saint George.