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The World of Ornament
25Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)Availability: June 7, 2025Teeming with tapestries, manuscript illuminations, carpets, and tiles, this far-reaching compendium brings together the two greatest 19th-century catalogues of ornament into one indispensable reference book. Encompassing designs from medieval times through to the 19th century, in styles as diverse as Egyptian, Etruscan, or Middle Eastern, this Bibliotheca Universalis edition is dedicated to decoration.
Hardcover, 5.5 x 7.7 in., 2.62 lb, 824 pages
“…a magnificent encyclopedia of adornment.”
“…an invaluable source book that presents beautiful patterns dating from antiquity to the 19th century.”
The World of Ornament
25Pattern Primer
The ultimate decorative resource
Discover a world of decorative ideas with this compendium of history’s most elegant patterns and ornamental designs.
The World of Ornament brings together the two greatest encyclopedic collections of ornament of the 19th century: Auguste Racinet’s L’Ornement polychrome Volumes I and II (1875–1888) and Auguste Dupont-Auberville’s L’Ornement des tissus (1877) to provide one lavish source book spanning jewelry, tile, stained glass, illuminated manuscript, textile, and ceramic ornament.
Encompassing classical, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Asian and Middle Eastern, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century, this compilation of cultures and aesthetics offers a primary reference for artists, historians, designers, and patternmakers, and anyone engaged in decorative design and impact.
The World of Ornament brings together the two greatest encyclopedic collections of ornament of the 19th century: Auguste Racinet’s L’Ornement polychrome Volumes I and II (1875–1888) and Auguste Dupont-Auberville’s L’Ornement des tissus (1877) to provide one lavish source book spanning jewelry, tile, stained glass, illuminated manuscript, textile, and ceramic ornament.
Encompassing classical, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Asian and Middle Eastern, as well as European designs from medieval times through the 19th century, this compilation of cultures and aesthetics offers a primary reference for artists, historians, designers, and patternmakers, and anyone engaged in decorative design and impact.
The author
David Batterham has been an antiquarian bookseller in London since 1965. He specializes in books and journals on the graphic arts, ornament, fashion, and caricature with an emphasis on work from France and Spain.
The World of Ornament
Hardcover, 14 x 19.5 cm, 1.19 kg, 824 pagesISBN 978-3-8365-5625-5
Edition: Multilingual (English, French, German)Download product images here
Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!
4.6
Inspiration source
October 28, 2021
The perfect inspiration source for graphics. So many details and artistic onaments.Un référentiel large de connaissances
October 27, 2021
Beaucoup de petits détails, contextualisations et précisions historiques qui sont très appréciablesA tool for exploration
October 27, 2021
This book is a convenient tool to help you discover fascinating ornaments from various cultures, civilzations and times. It is highly interesting to discover connections between the visual cultures of different regions and how specific motives migrate through time and space. I wish there were also examples of south Asian ornaments. Also I missed Sub-Saharan and Indigenous American ornamentation. I hope that future editions will include these cultures as well.Detailed & interesting
October 27, 2021
So much new information and such a detailed account of the subject.Incroyable !
February 2, 2022
Livre d’une richesse incroyable !Genial
January 10, 2022
Preciosa recopilación de arte. Ideal para referencias para creaciones artísticas.