Owen Jones (British, 1809–1874)
From The Grammar of Ornament. London: Day and Son, 1856
Frontispiece
Color lithograph, 22 x 14 3/4 in.
2010.1

In 1856, Jones published his best known and most influential work, The Grammar of Ornament summarizing his design principals. This lavish publication includes 20 chapters, each with explanatory text on ornaments from very different sources, including Greece, China, Medieval Europe, and the Islamic world. In his book, Jones established 37 propositions or guiding principles for the “arrangement of form and color, in architecture and the decorative arts.” It contains 112 color lithographic plates of ornaments compiled from museum collections—such as the Louvre, the British Museum and the South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum—as well as from contemporary publications, Jones’s own records, and drawings provided by colleagues. A number of fellow scholars contributed essays, and a team of assistants helped Jones for almost a year to produce the preparatory drawings, then transfer them onto lithographic stones to be printed.