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