Gothic Ornament eBooks by John Henry Parker
/John Henry Parker published archeology/architecture books in the mid-1800s and I am featuring his books on Gothic ornament as the ‘books of the week.’ There are three of them available on Internet Archive.
A manual of gothic mouldings, and continuous ornament (1847)
A manual of gothic stone carving (1855)
A manual of surface ornament (1855)
The images are great prompts for Zentangle tiles!
I also think about the ornaments in terms of history – the people that labored to create them, the places where their work survived, and how the spaces were used…are still used today – or maybe how the wars between the 1850s and today might have destroyed some of them. The ornaments on outer surfaces of buildings could been damaged by the elements or air pollution too. So – these books also represent a snapshot of what was observable at the time Parker wrote.
He also published a series of books about Rome: The Archeology of Rome which are available on Internet Archive…worth browsing.
