Ornament Drawings

The best drawing I have found of the structure of the acanthus scroll

These incredible details are from a huge (13 3/4" x 9") three volume set of prints engraved in 1872 by C. Claesen entitled Spécimens de la décoration et de l'ornementation au XIXe siècle. The amount of work involved In the drawings alone is staggering, let alone the time spent carving them out of stone or wood, casting them in iron, gilding them, painting them on panels, or sculpting them in clay and casting them out of plaster. These guys must have been just churning this stuff out. It's no wonder they got a little weird every now and then, like: What exactly are these two monkey people up to?

The quality of the draughtsmanship in every engraving is just superb. I'm giving you a close up view here, hoping that you'll enjoy these as much as I do. They are exquisite examples of how to draw ornament.

I posted a set of 187 images from the book here, on my Flickr page. Don't forget to click the largest size before you download.