Polychromatic Ornament. One Hundred Plates in Gold, Silver and Colours, comprising upwards of two thousand specimens of the various styles of ancient, Oriental and mediaeval art by RACINET, Auguste (1825-1893) - 1877

Londone: Henry Sotheran and Co, 1877. Small folio. 100 chromolithographed plates. Publisher's red cloth, decoratively blocked in black and gold Provenance: Peabody Institute (inked stamps on each plate) Spectacular chromolithographs of the highest order: English edition of Racinet's masterpiece. Racinet's survey of multi-coloured ornament in all its forms is a companion volume to his great Costume Historique . The work amounts to a world-wide survey of most of the decorative arts through history: included are examples of fabrics, leather work and book-bindings, ceramics, mosaics, enamel, metalwork, onlays, niello-work and 'metallic marquetry', jewellry, sculpture, lacquered and painted wood, painted murals, painted furniture, illuminated manuscripts, the human figure as a decorative element and finally 'cartouches'.