Styles of ornament
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| Styles of ornament |
In this edition, the number of plates was increased from three to four hundred which enabled the author to give a more complete representation of ornament as developed in England and America than had been at first contemplated.
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The original work was undertaken with the object of representing the entire range of ornament in all its different styles from pre-historic times till the middle of the 19 century and to illustrate the different uses to which it had been applied.
The whole of the illustrations which were taken from the best authorities on each subject and period were drawn specially for the work and evince the remarkable industry and knowledge of the author and his artistic power in representing ornament. In fact, it is only necessary to glance through several plates to see how closely the author has caught the style and character of each period.
Acknowledgments of the sources are made throughout the work and in addition, a special list of books of reference, including those which have been drawn upon for illustrations, has been inserted at the end of the volume. An English edition was published in America in 1906 for sale in that country only, but the historical accounts were not in accordance with the latest research and many of the descriptions to the plates had suffered so much in translation that very considerable revision was necessary for preparing the present issue.
Three new plates of English Ornament have been added to this edition taking the place of others which it was found necessary to delete, various changes have also been made in the headings to some of the chapters and in the terms employed, more particularly in the section devoted to the Renaissance period; for instance, the term "Barocco", which although well-known and recognized throughout Germany is but seldom used here, has been replaced by "Later Renaissance" which is more familiar to the English student and includes that which used to be known as the pure Italian style introduced by Inigo Jones.
The term Rococo has been retained as it would have been difficult to find any other to suggest the vagaries of the Louis XV. style which spread through Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and Flanders and here in England led to Chippendale's work; the terms adopted to distinguish the later periods are adhered to as in the original edition.
The plates and their accompanying descriptions being arranged throughout in chronological sequence render an index a very important adjunct and special care has been taken in preparing that given in the work. The examples are entered according to both subject and material and the periods to which they relate are indicated, thus enabling any particular object in any style to be immediately referred to. The 400 plates in which the several styles of ornament are illustrated contain a larger and much more varied series than in any work hitherto published, indeed the volume forms a veritable encyclopedia of the evolutionary development and application of ornament in architecture and the decorative arts throughout the ages, and it should prove of great value to the architect, craftsman, designer, and student.
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