Ornament source books

Where did 19th-century designers get their inspiration? Many designers, architects, sculptors and artists used ornament source books. These books proliferated in the late 19th-century, coinciding with advances in colour printing technology such as chromolithography. The Caroline Simpson Library holds a large collection of these striking books, featuring a broad range of decorative arts.

The best known of this type of book is Owen Jones’s The grammar of ornament, first published in 1856. Jones had spent many years researching the decorative ornament of Alhambra Palace in Spain and felt that the tilework designs he had seen there provided the basis for infinite new ways of inventing polychrome design for a modern world. Jones believed that there were common principles behind all historical ornament, regardless of period or culture, and these could be used in a contemporary way for use in designing textiles, wallpaper and furniture, for timber and metalwork – all elements of design. The grammar of ornament brought together Jones’s selection of the ‘best’ ornamental designs from across the world.

The book would inspire many other publications, including Auguste Racinet’s lavish French publication L’ornement polychrome of 1869.The Caroline Simpson Library holds a German edition of this work, Das polychrome ornament of 1888.

Ornament source books provided endless inspiration for practitioners of decorative arts well into the 20th century, and our collection continues to inspire contemporary creatives.