Book cover with overall orange and green dot pattern
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 11/16 × 15 15/16 in. (27.2 × 40.5 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
48.142.105
Art Historical Context
This vibrant 19th-century book, featuring an overall pattern of orange and green dots, exemplifies the decorative flair of anonymous printmakers during an era of expanding book production. Created as a relief print—likely from a wood or metal block carved in reverse and inked for pressing—the sheet measures 10 11/16 × 15 15/16 inches (27.2 × 40.5 cm). Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Drawings and Prints department, it entered the collection in 1948 through The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, highlighting its value as a preserved artifact of everyday graphic design. Relief printing was a stapl...
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...