Book cover with overall floral pattern
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 15/16 × 9 11/16 in. (17.7 × 24.6 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
48.142.67
Art Historical Context
This delicate 19th-century book cover, featuring an overall floral pattern, exemplifies the ornate decorative arts of the Victorian era. Created anonymously as a relief print—likely from wood or metal—the design covers a modest sheet measuring 6 15/16 × 9 11/16 inches (17.7 × 24.6 cm). Such covers adorned books during a time when mass production made beautifully patterned bindings accessible to a wider audience, blending functionality with aesthetic appeal. Relief printing, a technique where the raised surface of a block is inked and pressed onto paper, was ideal for repeating motifs like the...
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...