The Grammar of Ornament

<p>This beautiful highly influential book long a classic in its field remains today one of the most comprehensive and best-organized presentations of historic ornamental design. The original 100 color plates meticulously reproduced here from the rare original folio edition present a dazzling spectrum of copyright-free design motifs from both ancient and modern cultures. <i>The Grammar of Ornament</i> features designs from around the world: the West to the Far East and many cultures in between.</p> <p>Graphic and fine artists will find nearly three thousand designs rendered in fine detail from a variety of sources:</p><ul><li>Greek and Roman borders and mosaics<li>Celtic designs taken from manuscripts<li>Motifs from medieval paintings and stained glass<li>Floral patterns from Chinese porcelain wood and fabrics<li>Illuminated script from the Koran<li>Ornamentation from Turkish mosques and tombs <li>Moorish designs from the Alhambra</ul><p>Connoisseurs of art and design will find the book's rich display of decorative motifs an endless source of contemplative pleasures.</p><p>The work of the celebrated English designer and architect Owen Jones <i>The Grammar of Ornament</i> initially published in 1856 was the first book to present a global and historical range of ornament in color the first to display primitive art for its design content and among the first to suggest nature as a basic design source.</p> <p>Widely used and circulated this prophetic work ushered in a major change in Western aesthetics and heralded the move towards nonrepresentational art. Its value as a beautifully organized and produced pictorial museum of historic ornamental design remains unsurpassed.</p>