[Rarebooks] FS: 1860 Universal Decorator- the Victorian Arts Scene

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

>From our new SUMMER, 2007 catalog-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_current.htm>

Thompson, Francis Benjamin, et al. "THE UNIVERSAL DECORATOR. A Complete
Guide to Ornamental Design including designs for cabinet makers, wood
carvers, metal workers, Birmingham, Sheffield, and the Potteries. Scrolls,
Panels, and general ornament. Alphabets, initials and monograms"

London; Houlston & Wright: no date (1860).

Originally published in parts during the prior several years, the
‘Universal Decorator’ was, as the name implied, intended to introduce
designers and workmen to the ornament and designs of the current and prior
eras, and acts as a sort of microcosm of the entire Victorian Revivalist
Movement. The texts which accompany the hundreds of plates were written by
a variety of authors, and some had appeared in such publications as the
‘Athenaeum’, the ‘Builder’, and ‘Building News’.

Topics range widely- opening the book at random one finds “National Taste
in Architecture should be in Accordance with National Feeling”, a lecture
by Mr. Burnell, architect; “The Function of Iron in Nature, Art, and
Policy” by John Ruskin; “Employment of Electrotype in the Ornamental
Arts”; “The Application of Gutta Percha to the Arts”; “Alleged Poisonous
Influence of Green Paperhangings coloured with arsenite of copper”; “The
Manufacture of Glass in Bohemia”, and so on. The hundreds of colored and
black & white plates were prepared by William Gibbs. If you want to lose
yourself smack in the middle of the world of the Victorian designer,
artist and manufacturer, this is the book to do it with.

Hardcover. 9”x11.25”, xi + 512 pages, plus hundreds and hundreds of
plates, many printed in colors. Publisher’s brown patterned cloth with
gilt titles, gilt cover vignette, and elaborately gilt-decorated spine.
Rebacked, with new endpapers. A little soil and spotting, but a clean,
tight, bright copy. [31027] $650.00

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See our entire new SUMMER CATALOG at-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_current.htm>

 - - -


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Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
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