Product Description

The most beautiful patterns in all of history... Imagine having an opulent compilation of history’s most elegant and beautiful patterns and designs at your fingertips—to use, peruse, admire, and be inspired by. World of Ornament brings together the two greatest encyclopedic collections of ornament from the 19th century chromo-lithographic tradition: Auguste Racinet’s L’Ornement polychrome Volumes I and II (1875/1888) and M. Dupont-Auberville’s L’Ornement des tissus (1877). Adapted from historical items dating back to antiquity, such as jewelry, tiles, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, and ceramics, these ornamental designs encompass a wide range of cultural aesthetics including classic Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan motifs, Asian and middle-Eastern patterns, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century. Artists, historians, and art lovers will appreciate this lavish idea book, and interior designers and patternmakers will be delighted that all of the ornamental designs may be used and reproduced without restriction! Includes DVD-ROM containing high-resolution scans of all individual ornaments for unrestricted use

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Product Details

Publisher	Taschen
ISBN	2845612575
Format	Hardcover
Author	David Batterham
EAN	9782845612570
Label	Taschen
Edition	Har/Dvdr
Dewey Decimal Number	677.0.022
Studio	Taschen
Number Of Pages	528
Title	The World of Ornament
Publication Date	2006-04-01
Manufacturer	Taschen

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Customer Reviews

The Most Beautiful Book Ever

Review by Stephen W. Worth, 2009-12-08

I own a 1910 edition of Owen Jones' "Grammar of Ornament", the pattern book that the books reproduced in this book are inspired by. I also own the Dover reprint of the same book. I was concerned when I ordered this that the printing quality would be only a pale imitation of the original, like the Dover book is to the chromolithographs in my vintage copy of "Grammar of Ornament". I was thrilled when I started paging through this massive volume. The printing is fabulous and the plates are large and sharp. The only thing missing is the metallic gold accents on some pages, but that isn't a big deal.

This book is worth every penny of the cost. As others have said, it will certainly sell for much more in the collectors' market once the print run sells out. But I can't imagine anyone wanting to sell it. I've already spent hours poring over the hundreds of pages packed with beautiful and brilliantly composed and colored designs. I know I'll be spending countless more hours enjoying this book for the rest of my life.

Some things are a once in a lifetime opportunity... this book is one of them.

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Fantastic Book

Review by With Six, 2009-11-03

This is one of the most beautiful books I know of. It is an absolute treasure trove of historical decorative patterns. This book is a must-have for any kind of designer. Enormous book, but well worth the weight and the price.

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Impressive book

Review by A. Œwiêtochowski, 2009-01-06

It is realy impressive book especially a size :) I would recomend anyone interested in history of ornaments. Realy beautyfull pictures. Disadvantage is the fact that time period of presented ornaments ends at 1877 (date of first edition of book) so the end of XIX and XX century is not included.

Andrew, Warsaw, Poland

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the world of ornament

Review by Joeanne Yednock, 2008-10-06

this book is incredible. It was brand new. I have been wanting this book for years and could not afford the $200.00 price tag and when I saw it for $54.00, I thought it was a mistake.So I acted on it immediately.
Best book I ever purchased and I have a lot of design books

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Amazing book! Definitely worth the cost

Review by Jane, 2008-04-06

This book is beautiful inside and out. I was so surprised, it's a HUGE book, quite literally. 500+ pages, yet the size of my pillow! I throughly enjoyed going through each and every page delighted with what I'm seeing.

It also comes with a DVD with all the images seen in the book. My only disappointment was that the images came in the same format as the book was set in- meaning some patterns were difficult to use. My hobby is to do graphic design, and sometimes I freelance, and sometimes I do it for fun. So this book was suppose to be amazing help for me, as the book and CD promised 'unrestricted use.' But again, a little difficult to extract all the patterns I would have wanted to use.

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