DOLMETSCH, Heinrich (1846-1908)

Ornamental Treasures. A Collection of Designs from India, China, Japan, Italy, Germany, France etc. of all styles and times comprising 100 plates with explanatory letterpress by H. Dolmetsch

New York: R. Davis, 1912. Folio. (13 3/4 x 9 5/8 inches). Second English edition, revised. Illustrated with 100 chromolithographed plates accompanied by written descriptions.

Publisher's original cloth backing with boards

Dolmetsch’s international pattern book, drawing on his earlier German Ornamentenschatz and presenting a richly varied repertory of ornament from India, China, Japan, the Islamic world, and Europe.

The one hundred plates reproduce architectural details, metalwork, textiles, ceramics, bookbindings, illuminated manuscripts, woodcarving, and other decorative forms from antiquity through the Renaissance and later styles, arranged by culture and period and intended as a practical source for architects, designers, craftsmen, and decorative painters. The volume belongs to the great nineteenth-century tradition of chromolithographic design sourcebooks, in which historic ornament was made newly available for modern workshops, schools, and studios. Dolmetsch's achievement is to treat ornament as a living visual language, drawing together examples from architecture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, manuscripts, and painted decoration in a form intended for practical adaptation as well as study. The explanatory letterpress gives the plates more than decorative value, identifying sources and contexts while preserving the book's primary function as a working repertory for the applied arts. Dolmetsch, who served as curator at the Königliches Kunstgewerbemuseum in Stuttgart, was one of the most influential late nineteenth-century historians of ornament; his designs were widely disseminated through chromolithographic albums issued in Germany and England. Ornamental Treasures is among the most visually striking of these, notable both for the breadth of its geographical coverage and for the quality of its colour lithography, which vividly conveys the polychromy and surface richness of the original works.

Item #42557

Price: $450.00