L'Ornement Polychrome; deux cent vingt planches en couleur, or et argent, contenant environ 4,000 motifs de tous les styles; art ancien et asiatique, moyen âge, renaissance, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Recueil historique et pratique.
Paris: Firmin-Didot & Cie, Imprimeurs de l'Institut, Rue Jacob, No. 56, 1888. Cinquieme edition. Hardcover. The preferred edition, with 206 (of 220) magnificent chromolithographic color plates of the design ethic of the cultures of the world. From the library of Robert F. Tegen, Portland, Oregon architect.
"Albert-Charles-Auguste Racinet (1825–1893), himself an accomplished artist, is best known today for publishing two major pictorial works on the history of design — Le costume historique and L’Ornement polychrome — while engraver and artistic director at the Parisian publisher Firmin Didot et Cie. Published in ten instalments between 1869 and 1873, the first iteration of L’Ornement polychrome (Colour ornament) is a visual record in 100 plates of the decorative arts from antiquity to the eighteenth century. The work was such a huge success that in 1885–7 Racinet brought out a second series, this time of 120 plates, and updated to include designs of the nineteenth century as well. The imagery presented in both series is drawn from a wide array of various mediums, including woodwork, metalwork, architecture, textiles, painting, and pottery, and from cultures all over the world. Although based on past masterpieces of design, the fantastic reproductions in L’Ornement polychrome, carried out by a number of skilled commercial artists of the day, can be considered works of art in their own right. Indeed, for Racinet, the purpose of such a compilation of past design excellence was not only to celebrate the masters of the past but also to inspire an improvement of decorative arts in his own day and age." (Publicdomainreview.)
The cultures & time periods represented include Celtic, Assyrian, Armenian, Primitive, Moorish, Russian, Ottoman, Etruscan (12 images); Greek & Greco-Roman (6); Indo-Persian & Persian (18); Byzantine (8); Egyptian (5); Arab (6); India (5); Japan & China (16); Middle Ages (32); Renaissance (37); 16th century and 16th/17th c. (14); 17th c. and 17th/18th c. (27); 18th c. (18); 19th c. (2).
Folio, title page & half title,title page printed in red an black with publisher's device, half title. Damp mark on top third of the title and half-title only. A couple of plates with small crescent shaped chips in lower margin o/w plates in excellent condition. Chromolithographs loose in portfolio, fabulous color with gold and silver highlights, approximately 4,000 motifs. Below each image is a small device (a hoof, spinning wheel, fish, lantern, etc.) Original light green cloth boards, no spine. OCLC: 1053863. Ex-libris Robert F. Tegen, Architect, Portland, Oregon with his light purple stamp on the verso of the plates and inside of the boards. Tegen developed an expertise in hospital buildings. Some of his buildings include BOE Lodge 823, Vancouver, WA; Hotel Modern, Portland, OR, Ringler's Cotillion Hall (Portland); St. Mary's Hospital (Walla Walla); Salem General Hospital (Salem), Sacred Heart Hospital #1 (Medford). (See PCAD entry, University of Washington.)
A magnificent production. Very good overall. Item #24157
Sold