Tags
architect, chromolithography, Crystal Palace, designer, embossed, English, illustration, interior designer, leather, London, New York, Owen Jones, Thomas Gray
Gray’s Elegy
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
London, New York: Longman. Wiley and Putnam, 1846
First edition
PR3502 E5 1846
Illuminated by Owen Jones in his characteristic spidery style, this is one of the earliest examples of chromolithography, a method of book illustration that Jones was instrumental in popularizing. Owen Jones was an English architect and designer. His work on the interior of the Crystal Palace and for the Great Exhibition of 1851 brought his name as an interior designer into prominence. This is the first book issued in a kind of binding heretofore generally reserved for illuminated books – deeply embossed to imitate carved wood. The embossing was built up underneath the leather as well as from the top.
Always enjoy your posts! I’m especially fond of this one, because my father, in about 1924, copied the words and illustrated it with pictures clipped from magazines, as a project for his high school English class. I still have his version, and I treasure it. Thank you for letting us see some of the treasures in your library!
Thanks for your comment and your encouragement. Wonderful to read your connection to Gray’s Elegy. Look for future posts about other of our editions of this 18th century response to grief.
Look forward to future posts!