AUDSLEY, George Ashdown (1838-1925) and William James AUDSLEY (1833-1907)

Polychromatic Decoration as Applied to Buildings in the Mediaeval Styles

London: Henry Sotheran & Co., 1882. Folio. (15 3/4 x 11 1/8 inches). vi, [ii], 32 pp. Title printed in red and black with a decorative border. Illustrated with 36 plates in colours and gold with descriptive letterpress leaves.

Original publisher's brown cloth, front board and spine gilt lettered. Slight wear to the spine

A lavish and influential work, merging scholarship, artistry, and architectural advocacy. Among the most visually arresting testaments to the Gothic Revival's enduring legacy.

First edition of this monumental visual compendium of architectural ornament, issued by the prolific Scottish architect brothers George Ashdown and William James Audsley. The present work is a study on polychromy in medieval architecture and decorative arts that engages deeply with color theory, historic ornament, and Gothic Revival aesthetics. The plates feature detailed examples of decorative schemes from ecclesiastical and civic buildings, designed in imitation of Northern European Gothic, Byzantine, and Romanesque precedents. Informed by their own architectural practice and extensive study of medieval buildings across Europe, the Audsleys sought to elevate colour as a structural principle in design, countering the drabness of industrial-age architecture. This volume was part of a larger effort by the Audsleys to disseminate aesthetic reform principles to architects, designers, and craftsmen. The authors were also strongly influenced by Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament, though the Audsleys emphasis on medieval styles and their own architectural implementations distinguishes their work within the 19th-century colour revival movement.

McLean, Victorian Book Design, pp. 133-4; Hauck, 50.

Item #42512

Price: $650.00