The complete and unabridged full-color edition First published in 1856, The Grammar of Ornament remains a design classic. Its inspiration came from pioneering British architect and designer Owen Jones (1809–1874), who produced a comprehensive design treatise for the machine age, lavishly illustrated in vivid chromolithographic color. Jones made detailed observations of decorative arts on his travels in Europe, the Middle East, and in his native London, where he studied objects on display at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 and at local museums. His aim was to improve the quality of Western design by changing the habits of Victorian designers, who indiscriminately mixed elements from a wide variety of sources. Jones's resulting study is a comprehensive analysis of styles of ornamental design, presenting key examples ranging from Maori tattoos, Egyptian columns, and Greek borders to Byzantine mosaic, Indian embroidery, and Elizabethan carvings. At once splendidly Victorian and insistently modern, The Grammar of Ornament celebrates objects of beauty from across time periods and continents, and remains an indispensable sourcebook today.

Over three thousand drawings illustrate the ornamented styles that have been produced throughout the world since prehistoric times

Revolutionary essays on design, aesthetics and materialism - from one of the great masters of modern architecture Adolf Loos, the great Viennese pioneer of modern architecture, was a hater of the fake, the fussy and the lavishly decorated, and a lover of stripped down, clean simplicity. He was also a writer of effervescent, caustic wit, as shown in this selection of essays on all aspects of design and aesthetics, from cities to glassware, furniture to footwear, architectural training to why 'the lack of ornament is a sign of intellectual power'. Translated by Shaun Whiteside With an epilogue by Joseph Masheck

An architect and archaeologist born in France, Augustus Charles Pugin (1762–1832) fled to England during the Revolution and worked there for 17 years in the London office of the noted architect John Nash. Pugin's interest in the Gothic style — coming early during the Gothic Revival — resulted in this influential and exquisitely drawn book of architectural ornaments, each item copied with rare precision and flair from the original decoration. The 100 superb royalty-free plates in the present volume have been meticulously reproduced from a very rare early edition of plates dating from 1828–31. Here is a wealth of floral, foliate, and other designs rendered from panels, capitals, borders, brackets, friezes, and other decorative elements adorning (primarily) ecclesiastical architecture. Included are finely detailed drawings of grotesques from the New College Chapel at Oxford, wooden choir-stall finials and elbow rests, wooden door ornaments and stone stringcourses from Rouen Cathedral, stone spandrels, and ornamental wooden and stone cusps from a number of English churches and chapels, stone paterae from Winchester Cathedral, and much more. Decorative samples from secular buildings include renderings of stone capitals from Kenilworth Castle, stone bosses from Eltham Palace in Kent, and brass figures from the tomb of Earl of Warwick. Now regarded as one of the major sourcebooks of Gothic ornamentation, Pugin's illustrations will be welcomed by students of architectural history and design as an invaluable reference tool. Artists, illustrators, designers, and craftspeople will find these ready-to-use motifs an inspiring source of excellent designs for fabrics, wallpaper, tiles, and many other projects. Reprint of Gothic Ornaments Selected From Various Buildings in England and France, Preistly & Weale, London, 1828–1831.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.

The Buddhist masterpiece Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings, a set of philosophical works that have become classics of the Indian Buddhist tradition. Maitreya, the Buddha’s regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asaṅga in the heavenly realm of Tuṣita. The Ornament provides a comprehensive description of the bodhisattva’s view, meditation, and enlightened activities. Bodhisattvas are beings who, out of vast love for all sentient beings, have dedicated themselves to the task of becoming fully awakened buddhas, capable of helping all beings in innumerable and vast ways to become enlightened themselves. To fully awaken requires practicing great generosity, patience, energy, discipline, concentration, and wisdom, and Maitreya’s text explains what these enlightened qualities are and how to develop them. This volume includes commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham, whose discussions illuminate the subtleties of the root text and provide valuable insight into how to practice the way of the bodhisattva. Drawing on the Indian masters Vasubandhu and, in particular, Sthiramati, Mipham explains the Ornament with eloquence and brilliant clarity. This commentary is among his most treasured works.

This well-known book was prepared a century ago by two British architects, and its reputation has grown steadily since. The Audsleys' rendering of designs from a wide variety of sources are national traditions, and their excellent sense of space and proportion and their straightforward interpretations of these ornaments have made this collection among the most valuable of its kind. The 60 plates contain over 250 large-scale line drawings, mostly executed by the authors. The designs and patterns shown are derived from architectural decorative motifs, textile designs, patterns from ceramics, etc. A brief text specifies sources for many of the designs, and captions identify national origin and often the original color schemes. The illustrations include ancient Egyptian patterns from painted tomb ceilings, borders from Greek vases, Celtic designs, Japanese ornaments, Moorish decorations, eleventh-century Italian textile designs, and architectural elements from the cathedral of Notre-Dame and other buildings. This partial list of contents gives an idea of the many styles of design reproduced in the book, and the applications to which the designs can be put. Commercial artists, architects, crafters, designers, scene designers, and others will find these pages a rich source of decorative designs.

What would you do if you were given the opportunity to actually meet one of Santa's elves? What would one of Santa's elves do if he were given the chance to see something he'd never seen before...a real boy and girl! Elf in the Ornament is a wonderful Christmastime adventure, beginning at the North Pole. Santa's "experiment" involves elves living in special ornaments, hanging in the Christmas trees of unsuspecting little boys and girls during the weeks before Christmas Eve. The elves are only to observe the children and send nightly reports back to the North Pole, to help Santa keep track of who's being naughty or nice...but they are never, for any reason, to allow themselves to be seen. A simple experiment...until Alfred the Elf's curiosity causes him to accidentally come nose-to-nose with 9-year old Megan!