A slightly yellowing page of a book detailing color illustrations of various flowers with their names in tiny print to identify them. The illustrations are all housed within a rectangle at the center of the page; there is an inch-wide border of blank page surrounding the illustrations. The flowers are of various sizes and are arranged in four rows. Beginning on the left side in the first row: “ONION” - a small six-petaled white flower, “DAFFODIL” - a large six-petaled yellow flower with an orange trumpeting center, “CLOSOCOMER CLEMATIDEA” - a small many-petaled white flower, “HONEYSUCKLE” - a white and pink flower with ten long, skinny petals, “NARCISSUS” - a stout six-petaled yellow flower, “LEYCESTERIA FORMOSA” - a small six-petaled red flower with a separate illustration of the flower in white at left. Beginning on the left side of the second row: “SPEEDWELL” - a small four-petaled dark blue flower, “HAREBELL” - a small five-petaled medium blue flower, “WHITE LILY” - a very large six-petaled white flower, “IRIS” - a very large medium blue flower with three petals hanging downwards and three upright petals, “LADIES SMOCK” - a small four-petaled pink flower, “MOUSE-EAR” - a small dark blue flower with five divoted petals. Third row: “PERIWINCKLE” - a large flat trumpeting five-petaled dark blue flower,, “DOG ROSE” a large pink flower with five veined divoted petals, “CONVOVOLUS” a large round-like five-petaled white flower. Fourth row: “MALLOW” - a medium-sized pink flower with five divoted petals vertically striped with magenta, “CLARKIA” - a medium-sized pink flower with four petals shaped like crosses, “PRIMROSE” - a medium-sized stout yellow flower with five divoted petals and an orange center.

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1970	We photographed this object.
2019	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

The Grammar Of Ornament, Book, 1856

This is a The Grammar of Ornament. It was illustrated by Christopher Dresser.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of Botanical Expressions.

It is dated 1856. Its medium is lithograph on paper. It is a part of the department.

Christopher Dresser’s first published works were drawings, such as this one with leaves and vines, that he contributed to The Grammar of Ornament. The presence of botanical plates in his teacher Owen Jones’s guide to design reinforced the author’s belief that nature in its beauty and underlying order provided the best source of design inspiration.

It is credited Smithsonian Libraries, NK1175 .J78 1856.