Art botany in British design reform, 1835-1865

Abstract

"This book provides an interdisciplinary study of how design and botanical science came together in the 19th century, examining the work of leading botanists, designers and illustrators such as Sarah Drake, John Lindley, Owen Jones and Christopher Dresser. It reveals how design reformers looked to 'art botany', the practice of basing decorative form and ornament on the hidden, natural laws that govern plant growth and structure, as a model for how to create and identify what is new and incorporate it into what was already familiar and meaningful, in order to develop a national design aesthetic and a professional field of practice."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Introduction. The eye of intelligence -- 1. The orchid: Drake's "Cirrhaea loddigesii" in Lindley's Edwards's Botanical Register -- 2. The vase: Dyce's Drawing Book and Redgrave's Well-Spring -- 3. Multiple affinities: the orchid and the vase -- 4. Natural philosophy and the Crow's Foot claret jug -- 5. Plans and elevations of flowers in Jones's Grammer of Ornament.