The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones

Look to this blog to find illustrations of Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament of 1856 from the first and second editions by Day and Son. I am hoping to follow on from my dissertation on the Grammar written in 1984, with an entirely new book based in part on the Journal of Design article of May, 2008 and based on new research into the surviving designs of Owen Jones in the Prints and Drawings Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum. These bejeweled designs give clear insight into Jones' intentions with respect to Victorian ornament and are not well known. The V&A charges dearly for illustrations, but the Grammar is copyright free so I plan to start with the basic illustrations in that folio made famous by Niklaus Pevsner and Dr. Christopher Dresser. To these I will plan to add the plates from Moresque (Moorish) ornament that Jones first made popular by his publication of the Alhambra from 1836-1845.

Journal of Design History article by John Kresten Jespersen just published

The Journal of Design, 21, #1 has just published my article on "Originality and Owen Jones' The Grammar of Ornament of 1856" which I hope will provoke discussion about ornament and the Victorian aesthetics of conventionalization on this blog. The paper issue is due out at the end of May, 2008. I make the case in this article that the Grammar is all about the creation of original ornament, even though its typical use in architectural offices from the mid-nineteenth century was as a copy source book.