Curvilineal Design by George Phillips

PHILLIPS, George.  RUDIMENTS OF CURVILINEAR DESIGN.

London: Shaw, n.d. (circa 1839). Large folio. Later quarter-calf, publisher's cloth boards. 96 pages, 48 lithographic plates, one of which is hand-colored. First, and only, edition.

Phillips' Rudiments of Curvilinear Design anticipates the preoccupations of later theorists with the ever increasing demand for decoration in the wake of industrialization in the 1830s.  He incorporates examples of curvilinear design from many different periods--Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, Arabian, Persian, and "Hindoostanee" examples.  In addition, eleven plates are given over to Oriental styles and, unexpectedly, (especially for the late 1830s) styles in the Japanese and "Japanese ornament in the Chinese manner" are illustrated.  Some sporadic foxing.  Sympathetically respined with original spine label; covers rubbed with small patch on front board.  This is a rare book; we could find no copy offered at auction since the 1940s.

$3,500.00