Book Description

This sumptuous edition offers all 100 full-color plates from Owen Jones's definitive presentation of Chinese ornamentation and design, one of the most beautiful books on the decorative arts ever published. Now, over a centruy after its first publication, this remarkable work continues to provide an excellent, copyright-free source of authentic Chinese design and motifs. During the vast political tumult in China in the 19th century, many of the most exquisite examples of native art from the Ming, Ch'ing and earlier dynasties were spirited out of the country and sold into Western collections. One of the most spectacular of these assemblages was housed at London's South Kensington Museum (today The Victoria and Albert Museum). In the 1860s, the noted English designer and architect Owen Jones studed this collection in depth, particularly the wealth of superb examples of porcelain and cloisonné. He then meticulously rendered many of the most intriguing and beautiful designs in full color. These were published in his celebrated book, Examples of Chinese Ornament Selected from Objects in the South Kensington Museum and Other Collections (1867). This volume offers painstaking reproductions of all one hundred original color plates from that work, which delighted the art world of the time and exerted a profound influence on the subsequent history of Western design. Now that visual inspiration is once again available to artists, illustrators, designers, and craftspeople in this inexpensive high-quality edition. Moreover, any lover of fine art can enjoy the book as a splendid tribute to the glories of Chinese design—at a price far less than those commanded by extremely rare surviving copies of Jones's original work.