The Grammar of Ornament. Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament

Jones, Owen; Francis Day [Lithographer]; [Robert Stacy-Judd]

Edité par Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen, London, 1856

A propos de cet article

First edition of one of the greatest illustrated books of the 19th century. Imperial folio, bound in publisher's brown half morocco over brown cloth boards, Egyptianate pictorial stamping to spine and matching gilt-stamped morocco panel to the front board, all edges gilt. 22.5 x 15 x 2". Illustrated with 101 chromolithographic plates including title, some tinted but most in full color, protected by tissue guards. Very Good with moderate to heavy rubbing to extremities, staining and toning to cloth, 2 inch loss to cloth on rear board, and splits to joints including 8-1/4 inch split to upper end of front joint. Two 20th century owner inscriptions to front free endpaper, one from the architect Robert Stacy-Judd. Heavy foxing to first and last few pages, including final plate; occasional light foxing throughout, mainly affecting tissue guards; plate 46 tissue guard detached and worn at edges. Plates overall clean and bright. Owen Jones, the son of a wealthy Welsh antiquarian, was apprenticed to a London architect at the age of 15 and embarked on the traditional young man s Grand Tour at 23. He traveled through Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt before arriving in Spain, recording and analyzing the decorative patterns common to each country. Jones and his traveling companion were so taken with the Spanish Moorish palace El Alhambra they spent six months drawing and painting its details. Jones determination to do justice to the work upon his return to England led him to postpone its publication to study the new art of chromolithography, in which brilliant color images were produced by carefully layering impressions from multiple stones, each inked in a different color. Plans, Elevations and Details of the Alhambra made Jones reputation after it was finally published in the 1840s, and he was appointed Superintendent of Works for the Great Exhibition of 1851, designing the Crystal Palace s interior decoration. The Exhibition s display of art and industry from around the world enthralled the six million people who came to see it, priming the public to appreciate the monumental study of ornamental design that Owens published five years later. About 700 stones were used to print its hundred numbered plates at enormous expense, an undertaking that few publishers but Day and Son could have carried out. The patterns were taken from the architecture, ceramics, textiles, and stained glass of Europe, Asia, and Oceania (the last unfortunately titled "Ornament of Savage Tribes"). Design manual, treatise, and luxury art object, The Grammar of Ornament became a standard reference for design schools and played a key role in bringing the process of chromolithography to the attention of the wider public. Jones sought to prove the existence of fundamental design principles across cultures, and began his work with thirty-seven propositions for decorative artists, the most quoted of which is Proposition 2: "Architecture is the material expression of the wants, the faculties, and the sentiments, of the age in which it is created." This copy is from the library of Robert Stacy-Judd (1884 - 1975), an English architect who incorporated Mayan designs into his buildings, most famously in the Aztec Hotel on Route 66. His work is a tribute to the book s timelessness: the Art Deco gem on America s most famous highway is very much a product of its fast-paced age, but the dense ornamentation is applied in the spirit of Owen Jones. Jones' groundbreaking work has never gone out of print, but it has never been printed on such a scale and with such care as in its glorious first edition.

N° de réf. du vendeur 140948006

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Grammar of Ornament. Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament
• Éditeur: Day and Son, Lithographers to the Queen, London
• Date de parution: 1856
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Illustrated Books