Racinet S Historic Ornament

Adapted from jewelry, textiles, hardware, ceramic, inlays, carvings, and more, 852 full-color designs, collected by famed French artist Racinet, offer decorative ornamentation from every major culture of the world. Highlighting the achievements of artisans from ancient Egypt to 18th-century France, this treasury of historic motifs is an unparalleled source of beauty and inspiration.

The 19th-century French illustrator's classic reference to the decorative ornament of history's major cultures; over 2,000 royalty-free motifs in 100 beautiful full-color plates.

Classic sourcebook of spectacular royalty-free design collages, featuring over 1,500 decorative elements and motifs from major cultures in history through the 19th century, from Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas. Adapted from jewelry, illuminated manuscripts, weapons, tiles, carved wood panels, ceilings, inlay, hardware, ceramics and more.

DIVThe 19th-century French illustrator's classic reference to the decorative ornament of history's major cultures; over 2,000 royalty-free motifs in 100 beautiful full-color plates. /div

One of the great anthologies of historic ornament and design, on a par with Owen Jones' Grammar of Ornament and Racinet's Historic Ornament, Dolmetsch's dazzling collection of over 1,500 illustrations — most in full color — is a veritable treasure chest of royalty-free images. Artists, designers, and hobbyists will also find design inspiration on every page, with images of artistic ornaments from antiquity through the 19th century, when this volume was originally assembled. Arranged chronologically, coverage begins in the ancient world, with designs from Roman architecture and sculpture, mosaic floors of Pompeii, and Byzantine embroidery. From the Middle Ages come illuminated manuscripts and stained glass decorations. Items dating from the Renaissance and later include Italian glass painting, pottery, and lace; French tapestry and block printing; and German metal work and weaving.

Excerpt from A History of Ornament, Ancient and Medieval Books on ornament are so many that to add to their number may seem at first sight a wholly superfluous task. Yet in all the long lists of the bibliographies of the subject there appears a singular lack of systematic treatises on the history of the various styles which have marked the growth and progress of decorative art. Elaborate compendium of ornament grouped by styles or by other categories are not wanting; the splendid "Grammar of Ornament" of Owen Jones, and "Ornament polychrome" of Racinet; the "Ornamentenscliatz" of Dolmetsch, the "Handbook of Ornament" of Franz Sales Meyer, Speltz's "Styles of Ornament," and the excellent plates of "Historic Ornament" published by the Prang Educational Company, are examples of such collections of ornament, all meritorious in various ways, and all highly serviceable to students and decorators. But in the whole catalogue of the Avery Library of Columbia University - the richest collection in this country of works on architecture and the allied arts - I have found but two titles of systematic histories of ornament, one in French and one in German; neither available for those who read only English, and neither of them, even for those who can read French or German, exactly suited to the needs of the average English or American student of architecture or decoration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.