Ornaments are ubiquitous - they are found on buildings, fabrics,
jewelry, tiles, ceramics and wallpapers. Despised at first
In the modern era, ornament has long since returned to architecture and
influences both design projects and the world of tattooing. In New
Grammar of Ornament, Thomas Weil compares current ornamental objects to
results of archaeological research on ornamental artifacts and concludes
to the existence of an anthropological constant. From the arrangements
recurring patterns of stripes, rectangles, triangles and dots and the
frequency of the forms of floral ornaments used, he deduces a new
"grammar of ornament." More than 160 years after Owen's influential publication
Jones, New Grammar of Ornament is a new reference work. It categorizes
the variety of ornamental forms used throughout the world and places them
for the first time in a major artistic and historical-cultural context.
