About Grammar of Ornament
Owen Jones surveyed the ornament of Egypt, Greece, the Alhambra, Persia, India, Byzantium and the Celts, then flattened all of it onto 100 chromolithographic plates printed from some 700 stones. Every motif sits inside a ruled rectangular panel with its own number, keyed to notes set in Caslon.
The system takes his rules literally. Colour is the primary triad in his stated 3 yellow : 5 red : 8 blue ratio, laid flat with no modelling. Layout is a grid of self-contained numbered panels on warm buff plate paper. Ornament is structure, never illustration.
- Origin
- London, England — source material surveyed in Egypt, Turkey, Spain and India
- Era
- 1856; folio published by Day & Son, London
- Key figures
- Owen Jones · Jules Goury · Francis Bedford · Christopher Dresser
- Movements
- Victorian design reform · Moresque and Islamic revival · Crystal Palace polychromy
Grammar of Ornament design spec
Colors
Typography
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