“ ” by Owen Jones, 1809-1874

“A”

Owen Jones, 1809-1874

1864

42.5 x 31.15 cm.

Source: A Thousand and One Initial Letters, Designed and Illuminated by Owen Jones

Beckwith, Victorian Bibliomania catalogue no. 48

Collection: Project Gutenberg

One Thousand and One Initial Letters is a pattern book of designs for the letters of the alphabet influenced by earlier forms of decorative writing. Owen Jones's use of red, blue, black, and white on these chromolithographed pages echoes the colors and forms of the illuminated letters he created for his Victoria Psalter of 1861-62 (cat. 5). [continued below]

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Commentary by Alice H. R. H. Beckwith

The Victoria Psalter was an example of his work as a book designer, but the present volume, not being linked to one particular decorative art, illustrates the openness with which illumination as a decorative art in general was viewed by 1864. As with The Grammar of Ornament (cat. 47]. One Thousand and One Initial Letters found users in many branches of the decorative arts, and the fact that the present copy is held in the Art Library at Gorham Silver Company attests to its universal appeal among nineteenth-century professional artists.

Each of the twenty-eight plates in the book is organized around a majuscule and a minuscule of the same letter, as seen in the A plate illustrated here. These pages are a testimony to Jones's inventive skill, as well as his ability to achieve consistency in style. Even though the letters do not duplicate one another they are all related in coloring and form.

References

Beckwith, Alice H. R. H. Victorian Bibliomania: The Illuminated Book in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Exhibition catalogue. Providence. Rhode Island: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1987.

A Thousand and One Initial Letters, Designed and Illuminated by Owen Jones London: Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen, 1864. Project Gutenberg EBook #22427. Web. 1 January 2014. [The 1987 exhibition featured a copy of this book lent by the Art Library, Gorham Division of Textron — George P. Landow

Last modified 1 January 2014