The Chair
Perhaps no other object of our daily environment has had the enduring cultural significance of the ever-present chair, unconsciously yet forcefully shaping the physical and social dimensions of our lives. With over ninety illustrations, this book traces the history of the chair as we know it from its crudest beginnings up through the modern office variety. Drawing on anecdotes, literary references, and famous designs, Galen Cranz documents our ongoing love affair with the chair and how its evolution has been governed not by a quest for comfort or practicality, but by the designation of status.Relating much of the modern era's rampant back pain to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle spent in traditional seating, Cranz goes beyond traditional ergonomic theory to formulate new design principles that challenge the way we think and live. A farsighted and innovative approach to our most intimate habitat, this book offers guidelines that will assist readers in choosing a chair-and designing a lifestyle-that truly suits our bodies. Praise for The Chair: "[A] concise, multidisciplinary gem."--Publishers Weekly "Cranz is no sedentary historian. The Chair is a call to action."--Jonathan Levi, Los Angeles Times "Galen Cranz has written a provocative book. Pull up a comfortable chair-if you can find one-and read it."--Witold Rybczynski
Big Book of Silhouettes
An ancient art form dating back to cave paintings in the Paleolithic age, silhouettes were extremely popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when they served as an inexpensive form of portraiture, capturing the essence of the subject with a minimum of detail.Now today's crafters, designers, artists, and illustrators can take advantage of the silhouette's eye-catching power with this splendid sourcebook, meticulously compiled by Carol Belanger Grafton. Included are over 1,700 charming, royalty-free silhouettes -- culled from a number of rare sources -- ideal for use in a broad range of graphic projects. Posters, signage, magazine and book illustration, advertisements, brochures, and flyers are just a few of the potential uses for the illustrations in this convenient archive.Choose from a wide array of subjects: animals portrayed in assorted poses, children playing and reading, couples embracing, views of the human profile, people working, painting, biking, and playing musical instruments; and many more. All appear in striking forms that emphasize the silhouette's power to make a simple but bold graphic statement.
700 Victorian Ornamental Designs
The extraordinary creations of expert engraver F. Knight defined the lavish style of ornamentation associated with Victorian design. With clean lines and artful shading, Knight captured the spirit of the age in fanciful illustrations that combined the sentimental, the intricate, and the fantastic.
Artists, Advertising and the Borders of Art
Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, J. C. Leyendecker and Georgia O'Keeffe, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Pepsi-Cola, the avant garde and the Famous Artists Schools, Inc.: these are some of the unexpected pairings encountered in Artists, Advertising, and the Borders of Art. In the first interdisciplinary study of the imagery and practices of commercial artists, Michele H. Bogart explores, in unprecedented detail, the world of commercial art--its illustrators, publishers, art directors, photographers, and painters. She maps out the long, permeable border between art and commerce and expands our picture of artistic culture in the twentieth century. From the turn of the century through the 1950s, the explosive growth of popular magazines and national advertising offered artists new sources of income and new opportunities for reaching huge audiences. Bogart shows how, at the same time, this change in the marketplace also forced a rethinking of the purpose of the artistic enterprise itself. She examines how illustrators such as Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, and Norman Rockwell claimed their identities as artists within a market-oriented framework. She looks at billboard production and the growing schism between "art" posters and billboard advertisements; at the new roles of the art director; at the emergence of photography as the dominant advertising medium; and at the success of painters in producing "fine art" for advertising during the 1930s and 1940s.
The Art of Manipulating Fabric
The possibilities for three-dimensional manipulation of fabric - gathering, pleating, tucking, shirring, and quilting woven materials - are seemingly endless. To describe them all would be to describe the entire history of sewing. In The Art of manipulating Fabric, Colette Wolff has set herself just this task, and she succeeds brilliantly. Working from the simplest possible form - a flat piece of cloth and a threaded needle - she categorizes all major dimensional techniques, show how they are related, and give examples of variations both traditional and modern. The result is an encyclopedia of techniques that resurface, reshape, restructure and reconstruct fabric. - More than 350 diagrams support the extensive how-tos, organized into broad general categories, then specific sub-techniques - Handsome photos galleries showcase the breathtaking possibilities in each technique and aid visual understanding by emphasizing the sculptured fabric surface with light and shadow - Textile artists and quilters, as well as garment and home decor sewers, will expand their design horizons with the almost limitless effects that can be achieved.
Heck’s Pictorial Archive of Nature and Science
Based on J. G. Heck's Bilder Atlas zum Convenations Lexicon, published in German in the nineteenth century, the Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art was a monumental six-volume compilation of illustrations and information, covering an enormous range of subjects, from architecture to zoology. Among its most remarkable features were the thousands of superb steel engravings, comprising one of the most extensive pictorial archives ever published in a single work.The present book, one of three separate and independent volumes based on the rare original American edition of 1851, is devoted to nature and science. Over 170 beautifully reproduced plates contain thousands of illustrations depicting an extraordinary array of subjects: mathematical and geometrical problems; surveying instruments, astronomical maps, and instruments; planetary systems according to Ptolemy, the Egyptians, Copernicus, and others; positions of the planets; botanical illutrations of scores of plants -- including seed pods, fruits, and other parts; physical and meteorological illustration demonstrating many laws and principles; numerous types of physical and chemical apparatus; animals, minerals, fossils, geological formations; human anatomy; and many other images. A descriptive table of contents is keyed to numbered illustrations on each plate.Artists, illustrators, and anyone in need of precisely rendered, royalty-free science or nature illustrations will welcome this practically inexhaustible wealth of immediately usable art.
Magic Eye III
This collection of fun, engaging 3D illustrations is perfect for Magic Eye fans everywhere. In living rooms all over America--indeed, all over the world--people are scarcely believing what they see! Magic Eye has amazed millions and left everyone craving more. Stare into these seemingly abstract fields of color (no goofy glasses required) and an enchanting 3D image materializes. You will be astounded by the depth and clarity of the totally hidden image that develop like an instant photo.
Magic Eye II
The second of the New York Times bestselling series, Magic Eye. You need to see it to believe it! Exercise your eyes and imagination with 29 mind-bending 3D illusions. 2D illustrations will magically morph before your eyes to reveal what is secretly hidden in 3D. Viewing instructions and a solution key are included. The longer you look, the clearer the hidden 3D image will become. The further away you hold the page, the deeper it becomes!
Heraldic Crests
Rich selection of royalty-free motifs from famous British reference. Striking, varied designs include lions, tigers, wreaths, falcons, rosettes, human figures, mythical creatures, crowns, and much more.
Wildflower Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftspeople
From tiger and water lily, to snowdrop, ox-eye daisy, and thistle, these 163 North American wildflowers are boldly rendered in full-page and half-page sizes as individual blossoms and in borders, clusters, and wreaths.
Old-Fashioned Silhouettes
Because silhouettes have a unique capacity to capture attention and communicate quickly and clearly, they are especially useful in advertising and communications. The silhouettes in this splendid collection, selected from an archive of late-19th- and early-20th-century graphic arts, offer designers and artists nearly 1,000 designs ideal for illustrating a vast array of subjects.The human profile and figure, coiffed and dressed in many different ways; familiar animals, flowers and birds; coaches, planes, automobiles, ships, and much, much more are generously represented in this treasury of bold images. All are royalty-free, and all can be reproduced easily and put to work instantly to add a sparkling, old-fashioned touch to your next layout.
1,337 Spot Illustrations of the Twenties and Thirties
More than 1,300 distinctive, well-designed royalty-free cuts in a wide variety of categories: men, women, animals, transportation, many more. Add period flavor to any graphic project.
2286 Traditional Stencil Designs
Before the widespread development of modern interior decoration, builders and homeowners often relied on commercially available stencils to decorate ceilings and walls of houses and other structures. This volume reproduces two rare catalogs of such stencils, manufactured ca. 1918 and ca. 1920 by H. Roessing of Chicago. Over 2,200 stencil designs include an enormous variety of attractive and boldly printed images: ornamental borders, corners and frames with intricate floral and foliate patterns, architectural ornaments and design elements, religious symbols and figures, numerous animals (horses, lions, birds, etc.), mosaics, landscapes, and much more.Meticulously reprinted from original catalogs in the collection of The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, these masterfully executed designs are an important source of copyright-free material invaluable for artists, illustrators, and craftspeople working with textiles, wallpaper, and other decorative products. Moreover, these ornamental motifs provide an invaluable record of American decorative tastes in the early years of the twentieth century.
Victorian Allover Patterns for Artists and Designers
The intricacy, elegance, and charm of Victorian decorative art continue to attract a broad spectrum of contemporary artists, designers, and craftspeople. Now they can draw on this treasury of excellent royalty-free Victorian designs to add nineteenth-century ambiance to almost any project.The author has selected over 160 designs from a variety of periodicals, books, and catalogs from England, France, Germany, and America, including the Album de l'ornemaniste, L'Art pour toous, Foremschatz, Decorative Vorbilder, The Studio, Art-Journal, and Decoration. The motifs reproduced were taken from or intended for fabric, carpets, mosaics, lace, tapestries, metalwork, manuscripts, ceramics, stained glass, architectural details, paintings, and much else.Drawing on native European design tradition as well as the exoticism of the East, the patterns in this volume are predominantly florals and foliates, although there is also abundant abstract figuration, especially from Islamic sources. Textile, package, and graphic designers -- any artist or craftsperson in search of authentic Victorian decorative design -- will find these designs inspirational and exceptionally useful.
The Complete Masters of the Poster
Les Ma簾tres de l'Affiche (The Masters of the Poster) is one of the most prestigious and influential art publications in history. Its 256 color plates have preserved for each succeeding generation a wide- ranging selection of outstanding posters from the turn of the century, when the popular art form had reached its first peak. This Dover edition is the first complete republication of the legendary Ma簾tres set to devote a full large page to each plate.Les Ma簾tres de l'Affiche was issued as separate numbered sheets measuring 11 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches. Every month for 60 months, from December 1895 through November 1900, subscribers received a wrapper containing four consecutively numbered poster reproductions. On 16 occasions, the monthly wrapper also contained a bonus plate, not a poster reproduction but a specially created art lithograph. Jules Ch矇ret, father of the modern poster, emerged with the lion's share of the plates, 60 of the 240 numbered poster reproductions and 7 of the 16 unnumbered bonus plates. Of the 97 artists represented in Les Ma簾tres de l'Affiche, some were preeminent painters and printmakers at various stages of their careers: Toulouse-Lautrec, Denis, Bonnard, Vallotton, Puvis de Chavannes. Others were famous illustrators and cartoonists of the period, still well known to art collectors and bibliophiles: Forain, Caran d'Ache, Ibels, Willete, Boutet de Monvel, L矇andre. But there were also all those whose names say "poster," the conquering pioneers of the new medium: Ch矇ret himself, Mucha, Steinlen, the Beggarstaffs, Grasset, Penfield, Parrish, Bradley, and Hardy.This edition reproduces the plates in their original numerical sequence, one to a page, retaining the standardized tan border introduced by the editors of Les Ma簾tres. The bonus plates, originally unnumbered and issued at various times, have been given the letters A through P and have been placed at the end of the volume. The List of Plates indicates the exact months in which Ma簾tres subscribersreceived these bonus plates. In order to keep the plate pages uncluttered, the captions on those pages have been limited to plate number (or letter) and the artist's name. The List of Plates also furnishes essential data on the original full-sized posters: their dimensions, the year in which they were first published, city of publication, and specific print shop responsible. A special Dover feature, which is almost certainly a first ever, is a full literal translation of the text of all posters printed in a language other than English. These are all new direct translations from French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Czech, and Hungarian.
Medieval Calligraphy
"Vastly rewarding and illuminating." -- American Artist This comprehensive history and instruction manual contains, in one volume, thirteen significant medieval scripts, with a history of the evolution of the alphabets, and fascinating background material on the scribes, their world, and how writing styles changed over a thousand years. Moreover, it is the only modern book that provides clearly described, brilliantly photographed, and accurately reproduced examples of both major and minor hands along with explicit directions for writing them. The author -- a professional calligrapher of medieval styles, as well as illuminator, writer, and teacher -- presents a spirited historical account of thirteen important writing styles developed from about the fourth century to the end of the fifteenth. These include Roman Rustic, Uncial, Carolingian Minuscule, Early Gothic, Luxeuil Minuscule, Gothic Littera Bastarda, and seven other distinctive hands. The text explains how and why different styles evolved, why certain devices, codes, and abbreviations were used, and how form and function interacted. In addition to fascinating facts about the origin and development of medieval scripts, Medieval Calligraphy also shows you how to duplicate medieval techniques with modern writing tools. Thorough instructions and sharply detailed, full-page photographs of the original alphabets explain pen angles and stroke sequences for each letter and capital. By carefully studying and practicing the techniques described, calligraphers will be able to master some of history's most interesting and influential scripts. Mr. Drogin has rounded out the book with helpful lists of suppliers of tools and materials, American and European sources for facsimiles and books, calligraphic societies, a bibliography, index, and more.
Traditional Floral Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftspeople
Re-create a lovely spray of wild roses that once bloomed in abundance on an early nineteenth-century fabric. Duplicate a lush Persian floral print from a kerchief worn in the waning days of the acien r矇gime. These and dozens of other superb royalty-free designs -- adapted from patterns on antique textiles -- are available now to artists and craftspeople in this attractive collection.A noted artist and surface designer has masterfully rendered nearly 230 designs from French, English, German, Swiss, and Russian textiles of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Featured are profusions of flowers, leaves, sprays, branches, fruits, and birds in a wide variety of formats: clusters, bouquets, single vignettes, and more. Also shown are several full-page motifs with a single large, elaborate flower. Captions supply a brief description, date, and place of origin for the designs on each page.Among the many charming samples are floral and butterfly blockprints from Alsace in France (c. 1790), a Kashmir floral motif from England (1805), an English rose bouquet (1834), berries and flowers from Switzerland (1820), and scores of others.
Horse-Drawn Commercial Vehicles
Over 250 authentic royalty-free depictions of lunch wagons, ice wagons, freight wagons, fire engines, stagecoaches, hearses, and many other vintage vehicles, shown in detailed engravings and photographs, culled from rare trade periodicals in the Smithsonian Institution. Detailed captions. Introduction.
Art Nouveau Motifs and Vignettes
Here is a dazzling collection of over 300 permission-free images representing the finest achievement in Art Nouveau design. Selected from archives of rare materials long out of print, these engaging designs range from a simple medallion, a small frame, and a tiny flourish to large and imposing panels, vignettes, and borders. The panels and vignettes depict such subjects as a goddess of the harvest, a praying knight, a preening peacock, and a lavish floral display. The borders and frames interweave a host of decorative elements, among them flowers, plants, birds, and animals. This rich treasury of Art Nouveau design offers commercial artists, graphics and textile designers, and craftspeople authentic turn-of-the-century ambiance that will give special flair to advertisements, fabric designs, decorations, craft projects, and more.
Treasury of Animal Illustrations
This magnificent sourcebook of animal illustrations, meticulously reproduced from cuts taken from rare eighteenth-century publications, features a wondrous panorama of the animal kingdom -- from long-whiskered rabbits and stately reindeer to plumed pigeons, spiny-finned fish, and magnificently patterned conchs.A comprehensive volume containing more than 600 accurately detailed reproductions of copperplate engravings, this collection depicts the full spectrum of the animal world. In addition to a broad sampling of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, crustaceans, and insects, the editor has also included a small but choice selection of plant specimens. Captions identify individual illustrations and a complete index provides users with immediate access to individual subjects.Reproduced directly from rare nineteenth-century sources, this extensive collection of royalty-free illustrations will prove extremely useful to graphic designers, illustrators, and craftspeople looking for material that adds immediate interest and impact to any project.
Authentic Designs from the American Arts and Crafts Movement
The aesthetic achievements of the American Arts and Crafts movement, which dominated decorative arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, have become an increasingly popular subject of study and source of inspiration for contemporary artists and designers. This beautiful book presents over 400 copyright-free designs by 80 artists whose appealing and superbly finished works clearly reflect the ideals and sensibilities of the Arts and Crafts movement.The designs have been reproduced directly from rare issues of Keramic Studio, a periodical of the era that was a major forum and showcase for the Arts and Crafts movement in America. Although most of these designs were originally created for use in pottery, a medium of consuming interest to artists and craftspersons at the turn of the century, all of them are easily adaptable to arts and crafts projects of many kinds. Graphics designers and commercial artists will find these beautiful, copyright-free designs ideal to incorporate into a wide variety of projects. Potters, weavers, and those pursuing other arts and crafts will find in their sensuous elegance fresh inspiration for their own creative pursuits.
Stencil Alphabets
Compiled by noted typographer and type historian Dan X. Solo, this attractive collection of royalty-free lettering for commercial artists features 100 complete upper-case stencil alphabets (many with lower-case fonts, numerals, and punctuation marks).Included are such magnificent classic fonts as Ancient, Courtland, and Cleft Gothic; whimsical Ragtime and Spooks Alive; bold Braggadocio; exotic Limbo, Beijing, and Samoa; and old-fashioned Victorian, Brompton, and Barn stencils. Graphic artists can also add to their resource libraries such varied, attention-getting styles as: Auriol; Bigelow; Cabaret; Copely Plaza; Dawson; Edda; Grocers; Lira; Neutron; Sheetsteel; Avanti; Billboard; Cairo; Cuba; Dockside; Elephant; Cycle; Sagamore; Technic and dozens more. Distinctive, versatile, and appropriate for a host of visuals, the stencil patterns in this comprehensive, moderately priced sourcebook are immediately usable on posters, signs, stationery, advertisements, and other graphic projects.
Scandinavian Folk Designs
Designers and craftsworkers -- whether they're looking for permission-free graphics or artistic inspiration -- will find a treasure chest of ideas in this inexpensive collection of attractive Scandinavian folk-art designs.With 155 traditional motifs to choose from -- all adapted by noted Danish designer Lis Bartholm -- today's artists and craftspeople can re-create many of the lovely patterns that ornamented domestic furnishings generations ago. Eye-catching elements adapted from designs that decorated china or were painted or carved on furniture, walls, and wooden dinnerware include clusters of flowers, children in peasant garb, centerpieces filled with fruits and flowers, floral and foliate borders, wreaths, and much more.Commercial artists will find these attractive designs reproduce easily for use as textile, wallpaper, and stencil designs or for enhancing advertisements, greeting cards, posters, menus, and other graphic assignments. Needleworkers will be delighted with lovely motifs that lend a simple charm to wall hangings, quilts, embroidered bed and table linen, and other needlecraft projects.
French Fashion Illustrations of the Twenties
Women's fashions of the 1920s continue to fascinate artists, couturiers, and students of fashion, who will welcome this treasury of French designs from that dazzling era. Carefully selected from rare issues of the famed French periodical La Vie Parisienne, over 630 royalty-free illustrations comprise a pictorial display of sophisticated couture embodying the seductive chic of the liberated woman.Drawn with wit, flair, and charm, the line cuts depict slinky beauties in an immense variety of gowns, dresses, coats, suits, beachwear, lounging suits, capes, and other outfits. Carefully reproduced, these stylish representations lend themselves perfectly to graphic projects calling for sophistication and feminine charm. Moreover, this inexpensive compilation presents a valuable and authentic record of French fashion from 1918 to 1928.
Design History
Introductory text which guides the student of design history through the delights and difficulties of the subject, highlighting various approaches to study.
1,001 Floral Motifs and Ornaments for Artists and Craftspeople
Over 1,000 designs: roses, tulips, irises, lilies, more. Classical, Victorian, Art Nouveau, other styles.
Baroque Ornament and Designs
Baroque art and architecture -- extravagant in concept, exuberant in spirit, elaborate in detail -- flourished in seventeenth-century Europe, and through the ages has continued to stir us with its vitality and dynamism and its mood of barely suppressed passion. In the architecture of St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London, and Santa Maria della Salute in Venice as well as in the works of Michelangelo, Bernini, and Rubens, the Baroque spirit lives today. Now graphic artists can add Baroque flair to almost any graphic project with this magnificent collection of royalty-free motifs.The seventeenth-century French artist Jacques Stella (1596-1657) embodies the Baroque sensibility. Early in his career, Stella spent seven years in Florence, working for Medici Prince Cosimo II and enjoying the acquaintance and advice of the master engraver Jacques Callot. He spent another ten years in Rome, where he came under the artistic influence of his friend Nicolas Poussin. On his return to France, championed by Cardinal Richelieu, he became court painter to Louis XIII, and founded a career that makes him esteemed as one of the major French artists of the seventeenth century. This book presents engravings executed by Stella's niece after drawings of Classical motifs probably made by Stella during his years in Italy. These engravings, first published in Paris in 1658, comprise a magnificent sourcebook of ready-to-use Baroque design, filled with highly embellished individual ornaments, decorative motifs, and a dazzling array of border elements.Included are lush florals and foliates, fruits, leaves, birds, shells, acorns, and more--as individual ornaments and rosettes, as repeating motifs in a frieze, and in other useful arrangements. Now this sturdy, inexpensive edition makes them available to a wide audience for convenient reproduction as well as for study, inspiration, and enjoyment.Baroque art and architecture -- extravagant in concept, exuberant in spirit, elaborate in detail -- flourished in seventeenth-century Europe, and through the ages has continued to stir us with its vitality and dynamism and its mood of barely suppressed passion. In the architecture of St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London, and Santa Maria della Salute in Venice as well as in the works of Michelangelo, Bernini, and Rubens, the Baroque spirit lives today. Now graphic artists can add Baroque flair to almost any graphic project with this magnificent collection of royalty-free motifs.The seventeenth-century French artist Jacques Stella (1596-1657) embodies the Baroque sensibility. Early in his career, Stella spent seven years in Florence, working for Medici Prince Cosimo II and enjoying the acquaintance and advice of the master engraver Jacques Callot. He spent another ten years in Rome, where he came under the artistic influence of his friend Nicolas Poussin. On his return to France, championed by Cardinal Richelieu, he became court painter to Louis XIII, and founded a career that makes him esteemed as one of the major French artists of the seventeenth century. This book presents engravings executed by Stella's niece after drawings of Classical motifs probably made by Stella during his years in Italy. These engravings, first published in Paris in 1658, comprise a magnificent sourcebook of ready-to-use Baroque design, filled with highly embellished individual ornaments, decorative motifs, and a dazzling array of border elements.Included are lush florals and foliates, fruits, leaves, birds, shells, acorns, and more -- as individual ornaments and rosettes, as repeating motifs in a frieze, and in other useful arrangements. Now this sturdy, inexpensive edition makes them available to a wide audience for convenient reproduction as well as for study, inspiration, and enjoyment.
400 Floral Motifs for Designers, Needleworkers and Craftspeople
Grace your next needlework, craft, or graphic art project with just the right floral motif from this versatile collection of 400 beautifully rendered copyright-free designs. Reproduced directly from a rare Victorian-era album of transfer patterns by William Briggs and Company Ltd., these designs are among the finest of the period are are ideally suited for embroidery, textile design, woodworking, leathercraft, metalwork, and a host of other design and craft uses. Included are floral borders, corners and centers, wreaths, delicate sprays, allover patterns, lovely compositions with birds and butterflies, and more. Among the floral favorites in this volume are the Apple Blossom, Azalea, Begonia, Cornflower, Forget-me-not, Fuchsia, Iris, Lily of the Valley, Narcissus, Primrose, Snowdrop, Strawberry, Tiger Lily, Tulip, Verbena, Violet, and many others. The designs are conveniently arranged according to type and an index of uses suggests specific kinds of projects for which each type of design is especially suited. Also included are complete, easy-to-follow instructions on how to transfer the designs to cloth or other media and concise descriptions of embroidery stitches. Whatever your craft or design need and whatever your level of expertise -- from beginner to expert -- you are sure to find this inexpensive volume an invaluable source you will turn to again and again.
Banners, Ribbons and Scrolls
Elegant, refined, artful, imaginative . . . these draped decorative elements ― be they banners, ribbons, or scrolls ― run the gamut from the most extravagant confections of swirling delight to staid and conservative commercial illustrations. Perched patriotic eagles, medieval ladies-in-waiting and knights in armor, sailing ships, dollar signs, calligraphic doves in flight ― nearly every conceivable motif is represented. They come in a variety of sizes with open or narrow spaces suitable for graphic messages and are ready to be adapted to the purposes of any artist, designer, or advertiser.Artist Carol Belanger Grafton has selected all 503 of these beautifully drawn banners, ribbons, and scrolls from authentic nineteenth-century sources: Cassell's Magazine, Century Magazine, Illustrated London News, and other popular periodicals as well as various catalogues, copybooks, and book plates. Sumptuous Victorian designs reflect the glorious styles of the past: Egyptian, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque--and prefigure the styles of the future -- Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Each and every design is handsome, affordable, and royalty free.
Three Hundred Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs in Full Color
Art Nouveau is characterized by its love affair with lavish design: sheer sensuality of line and delicate interplay of color are the hallmarks of this popular style which dominated the art scene at the turn of the twentieth century. More than a century later, Art Nouveau still retains its unique appeal, claiming a remarkable resurgence in popularity. Here is a nearly limitless royalty-free sourcebook of authentic Art Nouveau design inspiration. Three hundred designs and motifs have been carefully selected for their ageless ornamental attractiveness from the Dekorative Vorbilder, an extremely rare early-20th-century stylebook, by noted artist and designer Carol Belanger Grafton. She has chosen 44 full-page plates, featuring virtually every decorative element including borders, panels, scrolls, cartouches, frames, head-and-tailpieces and dingbats. Each is reproduced in full color ― soft blues, muted olives, subtle lavenders, salmon pinks, and pearly grays. An extensive range of motifs are represented ― tangled ivy vines and voluptuous floral sprays of tulips and lilies; Piscean fish, parrots and peacocks; panels of geometric expression and window panes; and sultry women with flowing tresses. Amid the swirling splendor of Art Nouveau design offered in this handy, affordable volume there is a royalty-free illustration perfect for every design need.
Treasury of Japanese Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftsmen
A profound sense of the aesthetic beauty in all things pervades the whole of Japanese culture, finding perhaps its clearest expression in the decorative, applied, and pictorial arts. Characterized by a mastery of line and composition, and noted for lyrical scenes of exquisite beauty, the genius of Japanese art has bequeathed to the world a remarkable and distinctive design legacy. This exceptionally versatile collection of traditional Japanese designs and motifs presents the working artist with a treasury of 360 copyright-free designs. All have been especially adapted by noted artist Carol Belanger Grafton for ready use by illustrators, designers, and craftspeople. Painstaking effort has been made to preserve the original spirit and subtlety of detail while simultaneously sharpening the lines and enhancing the reproducibility of the designs and motifs. There are several lovely ceramic and textile patterns. However, most of the design motifs in this compendium were taken from woodblock prints. This particular medium was invented in China and introduced to Japan before 1000 A.D., flourishing thereafter and reaching its zenith in the Ukiyo-e ("floating world") school of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Accompanying these depictions of people in traditional garb, and accessories such as fans, keys, kites, and umbrellas, are many charmingly decorative family crests arranged in mostly circular configurations. Also included are full-page compositions of bold geometric design, vignettes of ethereal delicacy, as well as a generous sampling of nature's bounty: cherries, radishes, plum blossoms, lions, elephants, dogs, cranes, parrots, turtles, butterflies, even demons and dragons, and much more―often in several arrangements, many with reversed images.Artists, designers, illustrators, students, and teachers will find this indispensable collection of 360 traditional Japanese designs and motifs rendered in clean, crisp, black-and-white, copyright-free illustrations to be a remarkably fertile source of illustrative inspiration and design solutions.
Art Nouveau Typographic Ornaments
The turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement revitalized many art-craft domains, including of course typography. One sidelight to the typographic art, but one in which many printers specialized, was the typographical ornament -- long a tradition among the very earliest printers, once again brought to the avant garde of design. The best American and European printers offered whole catalogs of original ornament in the Art Nouveau manner -- today they survive only in the archives of printers and historians of type. Here, from the archives of a contemporary typesetter and printing historian, is a selection of authentic Art Nouveau typographic ornament, culled out of late 19th and early 20th century specimen catalogs. Over 800 ornaments of all types include the patented Art Nouveau florals and flowing botanic wonders, both realistic and abstract. Women draped in pagan robes form borders and head and tailpieces. Animals abound: fish, elephants, turtles, birds, and creatures of myth and fancy. Innumerable spots, shapes, symbols, emblems, wreaths, scrolls, cherubs, and gargoyles show in clear black and white how they will look decorating menus, posters, handbills, ads, books, any functional or artistic project needing a flavor of Art Nouveau. Printers will be pleased to complement their Auriol, Baldur, Cordova, and Metropolitan, or other Art Nouveau-style typefaces with these unusual, long-forgotten ornaments. Mirror images given for many of the designs increase their utility. All images are from original sources, all copyright-free.
Mola Designs
Mola is the Cuna Indian word for an intricate reverse-appliqu矇 needlework technique unique to this unusual, isolated tribe inhabiting the San Blas islands off the Atlantic coast of Panama. Mola motifs and methods recall the body-painting practiced by the Cuna in past centuries; today Cuna women's blouses display the colorful patchwork designs rendered here in black and white from the original pieces. The 45 folk-style designs signify themes ancient and modern: pre-Christian crosses, mermaids, dancers, animals, birds, butterflies, fish and flowers, abstracts, and repeating mazes. The introduction includes photographs of the Cuna; captions identify the motifs and give Cuna names. Designers and needleworkers will find these royalty-free designs a source of inspiration, and colorists will enjoy adding their own sense of color and tone to the illustrations.
Weapons and Armor
A misericorde is a medieval poniard or dagger made for one purpose -- to give the coup de grace or killing stroke. It was a beautiful, deadly instrument with a graphic mission; its very shape and cut graphically manifest its age and those who used it. Weapons throughout history chronicle ages, styles, and approaches to life and death; for artists, a weapons archive is a pictorial arsenal of powerful imagery. Here is such an arsenal: over 1,400 copyright-free illustrations of weapons and armor epitomizing the warlike times and peoples of this planet. Twenty-two categories of offensive and defensive arms and armor include battle-axes, bows and arrows, cannons, catapults, clubs, daggers, handguns, machine guns, powder horns, rifles, spears, swords, tanks, suits of armor, helmets, shields, and other means of combat. These copyright-free black-and-white illustrations (with a few half-tones) have been culled from almost 50 separate sources, ranging from books of ancient armor to scarce foreign periodicals and engravings. Along with the arms themselves are those who wield them -- soldiers, warriors, knights, horsemen, hunters, jousters, duelists, arms manufacturers, aborigines, centurions, dragoons, musketeers, samurai, crusaders, in full period regalia. One plate identifies all the parts of a 17th-century suit of armor -- visor, gorget, tassets, epauliere, cuisse, chain mail, gauntlet, etc.; many show details of intricate Renaissance and modern carving on pommels, blades, rifle butts, and boomerangs. Some remarkable devices include the Chinese Tartar 2-handed sword, Malay creese, Tormentum, Maxim gun, 16th-century Italian cross-bow, Soviet tank from World War II, Indian damascened cuirass, bamboo lance, halberd, and the scimitar. Unusual strokes may be visually delivered by such instruments as the Patagonian bola, a cane sword, the Zarabatana native blow gun, and the infamous "holy water sprinkler." Artists and designers will not find these rare emblems of warfare gathered together elsewhere in such a clearly printed format, so quickly accessible; historians of art, industry, and war as well as weapons fanciers will marvel at all the picturesque means here depicted of giving the coup de grace.
Erte’s Fashion Designs
Ert矇 once designed a costume for Mata Hari. Sixty-seven years later, still creating, he designed costumes and sets for the 1980 Glyndebourne Festival's Der Rosenkavalier. In between (mostly in the '20s) he was the only top Paris designer illustrating his own haute couture, most of the illustrations appearing in Harper's Bazar. An earlier volume (Fashion Drawings and Illustrations from "Harper's Bazar" 0-486-23397-9) sampled some of Ert矇's enormous contributions to that magazine; this is another collection of original designs from Ert矇's triumphant Harper's Bazar period. "He envisioned women," wrote Stella Blum, Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Curator, "not only as ultra-chic creatures for whom money was no object, but also as . . . music hall stars, Assyrian princesses, Egyptian queens. . . . Yet under this veil of fantasy the clothes and accessories Ert矇 created reveal a sound construction that really works." Ert矇 loves elaborate decoration, but hates meaningless ornament; these 218 illustrations show how he integrates all his pockets, pearls, cuffs, fur linings, jeweled tassels, and seamless dresses into thematic unity, and maintains a consistent ideal of fashion, by constant improvisation and inventive wielding of pure line. His firework color sense finds spectacular realization in 8 full-color reproductions of Harper's Bazar covers, all of which are now prized collector's items. In both black-and-white and color work, his sinuous, undulating line and decorative flair never fail, and show why his fashion design has not only returned to popular favor, but is being seen in museums and galleries along with his paintings and prints. Over a career spanning the century, Ert矇 has expressed his versatility in many forms; in these exquisite, delicate, theatrical miniatures (which will delight any lover of fashion history and graphics) he gives the very best of himself.
Mucha’s Figures Decoratives
To many, Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) is best known for his beautiful bell 矇poque posters and magnificent decorative panels. His distinctive graphic approach to the 1895 poster advertising Sarah Bernhardt's performance in Gismonda captured the Parisian public's imagination and catapulted the artist into overnight success. During the next ten years he became the high priest of Art Nouveau, publishing several stylebooks which were to have a lasting influence on 20th-century art and design.Figures decoratives, originally published in 1905, is a landmark book of the Art Nouveau movement and perhaps best exemplifies Mucha's artistic product in the years 1895-1905, the decade that made him famous. Mucha's purity of line and beauty of proportion take their inspiration from nature. But more than nature's imitator, he was its interpreter, translating its rhythms and designs into works that exude an indefinable charm. His unique approach combined originality of invention with spontaneous energy supported by flawless draftsmanship.This new edition of Figures decoratives carefully reproduces all forty of the original two-color plates from a rare first edition now valued at several thousand dollars. Comprised of finished pen, pencil, charcoal, and chalk, this volume represents the essence of Mucha's genius and documents the subtle shadings and linear excellence that characterized his masterful illustrations. Placed in rectangles, triangles, stars, circles, and a number of irregular geometric forms are figures of women, young girls, and children of both sexes. The harmony between the movement of head, limbs, and drapery and the sense of balance in each pose are the result of Mucha's instinct for composition, gift for ornamentation, and profound knowledge of his craft.Mucha's hand and eye are clearly evident in all his work though one can see other artistic influences which shaped the artist's development, including Gauguin's cloissonnism, Horta's and Van de Velde's kinetic treatment of curvilinear design, as well as the linear conventions of Moorish architecture and Islamic ornamentation. Yet Mucha himself believed that he owed his greatest artistic debt to the folk art traditions of his native Moravia.
The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha
To the general public, Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) is perhaps best known for his posters of Sarah Bernhardt and magnificent decorative panels such as "The Seasons" -- works that continue to grow in popularity and value as the resurgence of interest in Art Nouveau increases. Among graphic artists and commercial designers, Mucha is praised for the innovative style books that pioneered the use of Art Nouveau in commercial packaging, design, and ornament.The most important of these style books was Documents D矇coratifs, published in 1901 at the height of Mucha's fame as the high priest of the Art Nouveau movement. While the artist's fame rests largely on his posters, it is in the smaller works of the style books, or design portfolios, that the refinement of his technique can best be appreciated. The present volume, carefully reproduced from an extremely rare and valuable set of originals, contains all 72 plates of the Documents D矇coratifs portfolio. Included are designs for jewelry, wallpaper, stained glass, furniture, and tableware; figure and botanical studies; and a selection of Mucha's famous panneaux d矇coratifs. Eighteen of the plates are in full color, while the remaining 54 are reproduced in two or more color tones.In addition to numerous innovative designs for practical and decorative objects, the elegant draftsmanship and meticulous execution that characterized all of Mucha's work is evident in studies of langorous nudes, portrait sketches, delicately rendered plant and animal motifs, exquisite modeling of drapery and cloth, and the flowing, fantastic forms created as experiments in pure design. In the Foreword by Gabriel Mourey, specially translated for this edition, Mucha's own philosophy of art, and the relation of the Documents to the rest of his work, receive an appreciative and informative discussion.Hitherto available only in scattered sources, or in the libraries of wealthy collectors, the complete Documents D矇coratifs is now available in this inexpensive one-volume edition. Lovers of Mucha's work, admirers of Art Nouveau, and the application of that style to the decorative arts, will want to own this fine royalty-free collection by one of the greatest masters of the technique."[Documents D矇coratifs is] . . . an encyclopedic source for Mucha's style in every branch of decorative and applied art and one of the few books on design where even individual plates are sought after by collectors." -- Marina Henderson, The Graphic Style of Alphonse Mucha
Men
In recent years, woodcut illustrations have found renewed popularity with graphic artists, designers, illustrators, and craftspeople. Their diversity, crisp black-and-white lines, and adaptability to typography and a wide range of other projects make them an ideal source for a limitless array of craft and design ideas. Now Jim Harter, noted collagist, has compiled a comprehensive sourcebook of 19th-century woodcuts depicting men. Similar in format to his popular previous collection, Women (Dover 0-486-23703-6), the present volume contains over 400 carefully selected illustrations of men in an enormous variety of poses, costumes, attitudes, and activities: playing baseball, dancing, roping steers, mining coal, playing chess, hunting, flirting, courting, wrestling, shoveling, running, reading, talking, praying, thinking, gesturing, fencing, and more. Spanning a variety of geographical locations and historical periods, these delightfully old-fashioned renderings depict Eskimos in kayaks, medieval knights, Roman gladiators, magicians, firemen, soldiers, miners, beggars, fops, dandies, Prussian generals, shepherds, artists, acrobats, bullfighters, doctors, mythological and religious figures (Laocoon, Buddha, Moses, etc.), monks, prisoners, and more, representing nearly every masculine occupation and activity imaginable. The material in this book has been chosen to reflect the diversity of the subject, to illustrate the variety of styles of wood engraving, and to be of maximum use to artists and designers. Reproduced from such periodicals as Illustrated London News, La Nature, Leslie's, and Harper's, these engravings will solve a great many illustration problems at a very low cost. All 412 illustrations are in line and immediately usable; many have been silhouetted by Mr. Harter to increase their usefulness. This is an unusually comprehensive and helpful sourcebook that belongs in the working library of every modern artist or illustrator.
Animals
Contemporary artists and designers are finding the wood engraving one of the most highly desirable sources of illustration for many design purposes. Simple and bold or capable of the most exquisite effects of tonal gradation, this elegant black-and-white artwork sustains no loss in reproduction and is a perfect complement to typography. 1,419 clear wood engravings present, in natural, lifelike poses, over 1,000 species of animals. Included are many different versions of the familiar animals most wanted and used by commercial artists and craftsmen. Arranged according to the following seven categories, the illustrations portray mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and other invertebrates. Selected for their visual impact and usability by artist-collagist Jim Harter, these illustrations form one of the most extensive, royalty-free pictorial sourcebooks of animals ever assembled for the specific use of illustrators, graphic designers, craftspeople, decoupeurs, and collagists. Captions give modern common-name identifications, and a thorough index provides immediate access to individual animal pictures. Because of the accuracy and detail of most of the renderings, naturalists will also enjoy browsing through this volume and using it for illustrative purposes.
Historic Costume in Pictures.
From 1861 to 1890 the Munich publishing firm of Braun & Schneider published plates of historic and contemporary costume in their magazine M羹nchener Bilderbogen. These plates were eventually collected in book form and published at the turn of the century in Germany and England. This volume presents all 125 double-spread plates from the third English edition. For the first time, the plates appear in chronological order and with English captions.Over 1,450 costumed figures are shown, from antiquity to the end of the nineteenth century, covering a wide variety of social classes, and professions: Egyptian and Assyrian kings, Byzantine emperors, Frankish and Norman nobles, priests, servants, soldiers of many lands and eras, crusaders, German knights, pages, Italian scholars, German townspeople, peasants, merchants, Dutch burghers, popes, nuns, bishops, monks, English Puritans and Cavaliers, English and French kings, Swiss citizens, French courtiers and republicans, and many more. In addition, there is excellent coverage of late-nineteenth-century folk and their costumes, captured just before the beginning of standard Western dress -- Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Russian, Eastern European, Chinese, Japanese, Asian, and others. To avoid the variable and somewhat fanciful depictions of color in the early editions, all costumes are rendered in black-and-white.A comprehensive source of historic costume in pictures, this remarkable book will be invaluable to costume designers, students of fashion design, commercial artists, and anyone interested in the history of dress. The illustrations are uniformly excellent, and the exceptionally low price makes this book even more attractive.
Designs and Patterns for Embroiderers and Craftsmen
Have you ever wanted to create your own embroidery and crewel designs but given up the idea just because you can't draw? Here is a book containing over 500 patterns and designs from the finest Victorian source. Just transfer the designs to cloth, select a color scheme, use your favorite stitches, and soon your very own personal "noodle painting" will begin to form.These designs are classified according to type so that they are easier for you to use. You will find large motifs for big areas and dainty motifs for smaller projects; borders (narrow, medium, and wide) for pillows, sheets, and anything wanting a decorative edge; centers and corners for tablecloths and upholstery; insects, birds, and flowers for adding color to shirts and jeans; and even scenes perfect for sewing and framing.A wide variety of flowers, sprays, and greenery is included in this book, usually in various combinations: daisies, tulips, peonies, dahlias, cornflowers, lilies, rosebuds, poppies, violets, and forget-me-nots, plus shamrocks, heather, and flowers with ribbons, in baskets, etc. There are also butterflies, bluebirds, bumblebees, owls, dragonflies, and insects of all sorts. For those whose tastes are more unconventional or avant-garde, there are geometric designs, dramatic sunbursts, and unusual beasts.Complete instructions explain how to transfer these designs to cloth, and imaginative crafters will find this book suitable to a variety of other media, including metalwork, woodwork leather craft, and more.
