Illustration: Owen Jones. Horse Chesnut Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
In Leaves and Flowers from Nature, Owen Jones sums up in the final chapter of his seminal and influential design and decoration book The Grammar of Ornament, the power of nature over all forms of architecture, design and decoration. With this final chapter, Jones was making sure that everyone who had purchased and read the book understood the nature and reasoning for the title and why Jones had felt it necessary to publish in the first place.
The Grammar of Ornament in some ways was laid out as a history of human decoration and ornamentation. Covering human civilization from Ancient Egypt to Renaissance Europe Jones reflected on the human relationship with nature. Throughout the twenty chapters and one hundred and twelve colour plates, the basic line of the narrative was one of how successfully or not each culture and era had interpreted its original inspiration, namely the natural world.
Illustration: Owen Jones. Vine Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
Although, to some extent this was a personal critique of the history of decoration and ornamentation, Jones did try to put at least a healthy and respectable element of objectivity into the experience, which allowed him to at least bring general attention towards design and decoration techniques that were outside of the familiar European context. By placing European, Islamic and Maori cultures along with a number of others within the same publication, and at least to a certain extent with the same emphasis, Jones although not necessarily opening any prejudiced or preconceived European eyes, did start to lay the foundations of what we see and appreciate today as the complex and infinitely layered patchwork of human culture.
Illustration: Owen Jones. Ivy Palmata and Common Ivy Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
In the final chapter of his book, Jones produced ten colour plates entirely devoted to the leaves of relatively common plants and trees. With these plates, he laid the emphasis on the direct interpretation of nature. The chapter explains that all the previous chapters in the book dealt with individual cultures and eras and their own often unique interpretations of nature which could be reinterpreted by contemporary designers within reason. However, Jones purposely laid the emphasis on direct and individual observation of the natural world as the only true starting point for all forms of decoration and ornamentation, from architecture to the multiple disciplined decorative arts.
Illustration: Owen Jones. Scarlet and White Oak, Fig Tree, Maple, White Bryony, Laurel and Bay Tree Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
In closing Jones hoped and also felt confident that although mid-Victorian decoration and ornamentation led much to be desired and was in many respects derivative and riddled with pastiche, the building blocks for a new interpretation, even a new era in architecture and the decorative arts, was truly imminent. However, he did also warn that unless nature and its observation was at the root of this new and expected era, it would come fail just as surely as that of his own era.
Which new era Jones was predicting is debateable as the emphasis on nature implies the near future Arts & Crafts movement. However, Jones also placed emphasis on the new Victorian innovation of building with cast iron, which implies a future that was to produce the Modernist movement, one that was to dominate the twentieth century and that of our own contemporary world, much more so than the somewhat insular craft movement. Perhaps Jones saw room for each aspect to develop, eventually producing a Modernist movement tempered by a pragmatic grounding in the merits and laws of the natural world. That this intertwining of Modernism and Arts & Crafts did not develop is perhaps one of the missed opportunities of the last one hundred and fifty years.
Illustration: Owen Jones. Honeysuckle and Convolvulus Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.
The Grammar of Ornament: All 100 Color Plates from the Folio Edition of the Great Victorian Sourcebook of Historic Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Owen Jones: Design, Ornament, Architecture & Theory in an Age of Transition
Decorative Ornament
Persian No 3, Plate XLVI, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 12x16
Renaisance No 4, Plate LXXVII, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 24x32
Grammar of Chinese Ornament
Moresque No 3, Plate XlI, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 18x24
Arabian No 5, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 24x32
Moresque No 4, Plate XlII, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 12x16
Persian No 5, Plate XLVII, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 12x16
Renaissance No 5, Plate 78, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 24x32
Greek No 8, Plate XXII, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones Giclee Poster Print by Owen Jones, 30x40
