Art Botany in British Design Reform, 1835-1865 / Sarah Alford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alford, Sarah, author.

Series:

Cultural Histories of Design.

Cultural Histories of Design

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Botany.

Decoration and ornament.

Design--Philosophy.

Design.

Nature (Aesthetics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2024.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

Drawing on the fields of design history and the history of science, this book examines the important role that botanical science played in the emergence of Victorian design theory. In early 19th-century Britain, a rapid influx of plants from other countries began to confuse the orders of classification. As these new specimens arrived in nurseries and conservatories, botanists revised and promoted a new taxonomy: the Natural System. In parallel, in 1835, British manufacturers faced a government inquiry in order to improve the output of the British design industry. They needed a nationally identifiable design aesthetic and the inquiry led to the creation of the Government Schools of Design and the Design Reform movement. This book explores how, whilst botanists used drawings to clarify new systems of plant classification, designers learnt 'art botany', the practice of basing decorative form and ornament on the hidden, natural laws that govern plant growth and structure. Design reformers used botany as a model for how to create and identify what is new and incorporate it into what was already familiar and meaningful, all within the purview of developing a professional field of practice. Sarah Alford provides a rich, interdisciplinary study of how the fields of design and botanical science came together. Through a framework of material culture, Alford sheds new light on the work of leading botanists, designers and illustrators such as Sarah Drake, John Lindley, Richard Redgrave, Owen Jones and Christopher Dresser. This book reveals how the designation of what design reformers deemed appropriate for the surface decoration of material structures as varied as carpets, jugs, wallpaper, and furniture, was an embrace of botanical science as a source of fantasy and imagination.

Contents:

Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction 1. Multiple Affinities 2. Well-Spring 3. The Well-Spring and the Orchid 4. Natural Philosophy and the Crow's Foot Claret Jug 5. Plans and Elevations of Flowers Conclusion Bibliography Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350350540

1350350540

9781350350557

1350350559

9781350350564

1350350567

OCLC:

1463573384