PBA Galleries

Before the publication of this book, Owen Jones was already well-known for his designs of the Crystal Palace and St. James's Hall in London, his position as Superintendent of the London Exhibition in 1851, and his authorship of 'Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra'. The publication of this text, however, set him up as the definitive authority of decorative ornamentation. He states his goal in his preface: "All, therefore, that I have proposed to myself in forming the collection which I have ventured to call the Grammar of Ornament, has been to select a few of the most prominent types in certain styles closely connected with each other, and in which certain general laws appeared to reign independently of the individual peculiarities of each." First published in 1856 with 100 plates.