By Authority. Specimens Of Ornamental Art Selected From The Best Models Of The Classical Epochs. Illustrated By Eighty Plates. By Lewis Gruner, Author Of Fresco Decorations And Stuccos Of Churches, Palaces, And Villas In Italy During The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries; And Of Her Majesty's Pavilion In Buckingham Palace Gardens, Etc. Etc. With Descriptive Text By Emil Braun.

Ludwig Gruner

RA Collection: Book

Record number

05/517

Author

Ludwig Gruner

Variant Title

Specimens Of Ornamental Art
Explanatory Text And Additional Plates To Lewis Gruner's Specimens Of Ornamental Art

Imprint

London:: Published By Thomas M'Lean, 26, Haymarket., MDCCCL.

Physical Description

[2 parts bound as one]; 631 mm (part one) and 319 mm (part two).

General Note

[Part 1:] [6] p., [85] pl. The plates are not numbered. The table of Contents calls for 80 plates; but there are (at least, in the Royal Academy's copy) five additional plates - three preceding that listed as no. 1(the first of these is numbered 'Plate I'), one between those listed as 73 and 74, and one between those listed as 78 and 79. - [Part 2:] vii, [i], 36 p., 7 pl.

[Part 1:] [T.p., dedic.] - Contents [listing 80 pl.] - [Plates]. - [Part 2:] [Half-t., t.p.] - Contents - Preface - Description Of The Plates [describing 80 pl.] - [Additional pl.].

Responsibility Note

No plate is signed by draughtsman or engraver. Some carry the name of a source-artist.

Most plates carry the publisher's imprint of L. Gruner.

A few plates carry the wording, 'Printed by J. Aresti'.

The printer's imprint appears on the t.p. versos of both parts: 'London: Bradbury And Evans, Printers (Extraordinary To The Queen), Whitefriars'.

The work is dedicated by the author, Lewis Gruner, to Prince Albert as President of the Society of Arts.

References

NSTC 2B46393.

Summary Note

The title of the second part reads, 'Explanatory Text And Additional Plates To Lewis Gruner's Specimens Of Ornamental Art ... By Emil Braun'.

The plates are listed in the table of 'Contents' as in four groups: I. Architectural Ornaments, Monochrome Designs, &c. &c. Plates 1 to 29; II. Pompeiana. Plates 30 to 36; III. Church Ornaments. Plates 37 to 62; IV. Palaces. Plates 63 to 80. They show chiefly ancient Roman and Renaissance paintings, mosaic, carvings and architectural details from buildings in Italy, and include designs by Fra Giovanni, Sansovino, Holbein, B. Luini, Jacobo della Turrita, Giotto, Primaticcio, Giulio Romano, Perin del Vaga and Raphael.

Of the 85 plates many plates are outline designs; some are in monochrome (pl. [11, 14-22]); many are in full color (pl. [10, 12, 13, 23-32, 34-40, 42-45, 47, 48, 50-53, 55, 59-63, 66, 69, 71-73, 75, 76, 78-81, 84, 85]).

A French translation of this work was published in Paris in the same year.

Gruner's last plate, showing the coved ceiling of Raphael's Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican Palace, was taken as a model for the ceiling of the Vice-President's Room in the Capital, Washington, U.S.A.

Reproductions

Microfiche by Chadwyck-Healey (Cambridge, 1996): 5 fiches. The nineteenth century; Visual arts collection; N.4.2.1846. (a b c). Pos: Mic.F.348/4.2.1846.

Binding Note

19th-century half blue morocco, blue cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Gruner's Ornamental Designs', 'R.A.' and '1850'.

Subject

Mural paintings, Roman - Mosaics, Roman - Italy - Lazio - Rome - Campania - Pompeii (Extinct city) - History
Applied decoration - Ornaments - Interior decoration - Mural paintings - Palaces - Churches - Italy - History - Renaissance
Designs - Pattern books - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Colour printing - Great Britain - 19th century