Book cover with overal circle and dot pattern
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 1/8 × 15 1/2 in. (28.2 × 39.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1948
Accession Number
48.142.104
Art Historical Context
This 19th-century relief print, titled *Book Cover with Overall Circle and Dot Pattern*, an anonymous artisan's clever use of simple geometric motifs—repeating circles and dots—to create a rhythmic, all-over design. Measuring 11 1/8 × 15 1/2 inches (28.2 × 39.3 cm), it was produced via relief printing, likely from wood or metal blocks where the image is inked and pressed onto paper fabric. This technique, efficient and versatile, was ideal for mass-producing decorative elements during an era of expanding print culture. In the 19th century, as industrialization fueled a boom in book production...
About the Artist
Anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...