DOI

https://doi.org/10.25772/QVF2-H641

Defense Date

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Art History

First Advisor

Charles Brownell

Abstract

The Practical Decorator and Ornamentist (Glasgow, 1892), one of the jewels in James Branch Cabell Library, embodies the work of the distinguished British designers George Ashdown Audsley and Maurice A. Audsley; the eminent Scottish publishing firm of Blackie & Son; and the illustrious French printing house of Didot. The thesis argues that the Decorator is one of the great nineteenth-century design books. Chapter one focuses on G. A. Audsley’s five masterworks and illustrates the contributions of a distinguished family of architects. There has not been a study of the Audsleys in ten years, and the present study goes further than other scholars in giving the Audsleys proper credit. Chapter two examines the Blackies, summarizing for the first time their patronage of Alexander Thomson, Talwin Morris, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Chapter three is the first close analysis of the book, tying it to A. W. N. Pugin, Owen Jones and Christopher Dresser, and opening the question of its international impact to the present.

Rights

© The Author

Is Part Of

VCU University Archives

Is Part Of

VCU Theses and Dissertations

Date of Submission

May 2010

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