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    1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources
    1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources
    1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources
    Ebook215 pages1 hour

    1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources

    By John Leighton

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    About this ebook

    Well-known in the Victorian art world for his award-winning ornamental designs, John Leighton decided to provide contemporary artists and artisans with a rich sourcebook of ideas and inspiration to use in developing their own designs. Entitled Suggestions in Design, the book featured an enormous array of designs and motifs from many cultures and times. The present volume contains all 102 plates from that rare 19th-century compilation.
    Included are more than 1,100 motifs painstakingly adapted from a host of design traditions: primitive tribal art and pottery; Egyptian sculpture and painting; Assyrian wall sculptures and carved ivory; Greek sculpture and terra-cotta vases; Etruscan painting, bronzework, and jewelry; Pompeian architectural details and mosaics; designs from Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Moorish, French Renaissance, and other sources. Careful reworkings rather than exact copies of original designs, these motifs were meant to guide users in creating their own versions of decorative ornament.
    Reproduced from a valuable original printed in 1881, this book includes detailed descriptions of the plates. It represents a highly useful source of beautifully rendered, copyright-free images that will be welcomed by artists, illustrators, craftworkers, and countless enthusiasts of the decorative arts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateNov 16, 2012
    ISBN9780486155654
    1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources
    Author

    John Leighton

    John Leighton received a BA in philosophy from the University of Minnesota and a JD from William Mitchell College of Law. He practiced law in Minneapolis for more than thirty years before retiring. He and his wife, Susan, live on a lake in northwestern Wisconsin.

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      1,100 Designs and Motifs from Historic Sources - John Leighton

      NOTE

      JOHN LEIGHTON (1822—1912), a Fellow of the Society of Arts, was best known for his award-winning ornamental and decorative designs. The 102 plates in this volume, along with the description of their contents, are reproduced from Suggestions in Design, Leighton’s comprehensive book of designs incorporating various styles of ornament and intended for practical use in the decorative and constructive arts. The plates, which cover a wide variety of historical periods and styles, are arranged chronologically whenever possible, the same order in which they appeared in the 1881 edition. It was Leighton’s intention to provide fellow craftsmen with suggestions, which he presented as aids to design rather than for servile imitation or direct appropriation, serving to represent the type of many designs and not the exact portraits of any (Publishers’ Preface, 1881 edition).

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      NOTE

      Copyright Page

      DESCRIPTION OF PLATES

      9780486155654

      Copyright

      Copyright © 1995 by Dover Publications, Inc.

      All rights reserved.

      Bibliographical Note

      This Dover edition, first published in 1995, contains all 102 plates and the descriptive contents of Suggestions in Design. Being a Comprehensive Series of Original Sketches in Various Styles of Ornament. Arranged for Application in the Decorative and Constructive Arts by John Leighton, first published by D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1881. The Publisher’s Note has been specially prepared for this edition.

      DOVER Pictorial Archive SERIES

      This book belongs to the Dover Pictorial Archive Series. You may use the designs and illustrations for graphics and crafts applications, free and without special permission, provided that you include no more than ten in the same publication or project. (For permission for additional use, please write to Permissions Department, Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501.)

      However, republication or reproduction of any illustration by any other graphic service, whether it be in a book or in any other design resource, is strictly prohibited.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Leighton, John, 1822—1912.

      [Suggestions in design]

      1,100 designs and motifs from historic sources / John Leighton.

      p. cm.

      Originally published: Suggestions in design. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1881.

      ISBN 0-486-28730-0 (pbk.)

      1. Leighton, John, 1822—1912—Themes, motives. 2. Repetitive patterns (Decorative arts) 3. Decoration and ornament—Plant forms. 4. Decoration and ornament—Animal forms. I. Title.

      NK1535.L62A4 1995

      745.4—dc20

      95-40658

      CIP

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

      DESCRIPTION OF PLATES

      SAVAGE AND EARLY TRIBES (PLATE 1)

      PLATE 1. Nos. 1 and 2. What are called frets or meanders are common in all early work; of such are these rude frets, which are ancient Mexican.

      No. 3 is an ornament of somewhat similar character. Strange, uncouth variations of such forms, which possibly had a meaning of which we have no solution, are found in the ancient cities of Mexico and Central America. These ornaments are applicable to the enrichment of narrow bands of stonework or other material.

      No. 4 may have been suggested by feathers, and consists of gracefully flowing lines, fitting one into the other. They represent incised lines engraved on a plain surface.

      Nos. 5, 7, and 8 are enrichments for upright surfaces. The first appears like an impress in clay of a hieroglyphical character. No. 7 looks to be a series of birds’ heads piled one upon another, as on a door post, and reminds one of the rude cats’ heads of our own Norman work. No. 8 is evidently from matting. Similar zigzag lines are to be found worked out in many ways. The zigzag has been noticed by various archaeologists as being one of the earliest and most widely spread of all ornaments which are to be found among the most primitive works of mankind. We may easily imagine it commencing with the scratched lines on wet clay, or the alternate notching of a stick, as in Figs. 1 and 2. From this by an angular tool the workman soon arrived at the zigzag formed by recessed triangles, Fig. 3, and the star-form, Fig. 4, all of which are common on the clubs of the South Sea Islanders. These ornaments are all monotonous, and simple repetitions of the same form. Repetition, however, is one of the means of giving pleasure to the eye, so common, that it is of constant occurrence in every known style or mode of ornamentation. It is equally frequent in nature.

      FIG. 1

      FIG. 2

      FIG. 3

      FIG. 4

      No. 6 is a peculiar example of a crowned figure, and may possibly represent a prisoner taken in battle, and condemned to occupy a confined and cramped position. The head has a beard, the biceps of the arm is indicated by a scroll, and although nearly bodiless, the knee, calf, and ankle-bone are clearly expressed, but in an odd conventional manner.

      No. 9 consists of flowing and interlacing lines, combined with faces, and running into a beak or species of bird’s head at the top.

      No. 10 may represent a mask with large goggle eyes, mouth and tongue. It is after the manner of a tattoed face, as seen among the New Zealanders.

      No. 11 exhibits the use of colours, consisting of red, black, and white, and is apparently taken from leaning blocks, such as bricks, each being impressed with a stamp. If made continuous, it will be observed that the red and black alternate at regular intervals.

      No. 12 is a carved idol, which besides the rudely formed side figures of grotesque shapes, contains in the centre the suggestion of a face with two eyes, appearing as if rising above the triangle.

      No. 13 is ancient Mexican. It is strange and uncouth, without much beauty of form, and probably contains the name of some great personage or king, as the centre is formed of what appear to be arbitrary characters.

      No. 14 is a diaper with animal or cat’s head, triangles and stripes. It also serves to show how prevalent geometrical figures were, even in the rudest ages. The angle

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