I love the patterns from the Arts and Crafts/ Art Nouveau era. Chronicle books has recently released a 19th century pattern book, Plants and Their Application to Ornament A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer By Eugène Grasset Introduction by David P. Becker. What makes this book special is that a plant is beautifully drawn on one book plate. Then the next book plate has that same plant interpreted as a design motif, with several variations. In an interview, David Becker explains the concept of the pattern book:

“This type of book is really a ‘pattern book,’ (sometimes called ‘model book’ or ‘ornament book’) the illustrations of which are used by other artisans and/or designers as ideas for works in various media. They are related, but perhaps slightly different, than books of anatomy or expression expressly meant for artists to use in their paintings, tapestries, or sculpture….

What is the history of the ‘pattern book’? DB – Pattern books actually began in the medieval period, even before printing was invented, when artisans themselves would sketch out their repertory of designs in small sketchbooks to show potential customers the range of objects they could produce. Eventually artists began inventing design motifs and reproducing them in prints, from which other artisans could produce objects. This is a huge category, including furniture, jewelry, silverware, fans, clothes, architectural motifs (interior and exterior), landscaped gardens, and so on. This specific type of book did change somewhat after the Industrial Revolution, when the more corporate ’sales catalogue’ came more into use, displaying ready-made products—but it didn’t disappear.

What would be our modern equivalent to this type of book? DB – I think the ‘pattern book’ still survives, if not exactly in a book form. For instance, catalogues from Home Depot or other do-it-yourself stores present hundreds of different doors or kitchen counters for the individual consumer to pick from and assemble, in any variety of paint colors. Finally, the Internet is, I believe, a logical continuation of the pattern book…”

Chronicle obtained the book from the Boston Museum of Art. While I would dearly love to have the book to hold and read in bed, I am cheap. I discovered that the BMA has which has decent resolution, large size (800 x 800 pixels) individual plates from the book available online. I can’t read it in bed before I put out the light, but it is free, which is always good.