Book cover with overall stripe pattern with geometric designs
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 1/4 in. × 11 in. (20.9 × 27.9 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
48.142.94
Art Historical Context
This exquisite 19th-century book cover, created anonymously through relief printing on wood or metal, showcases a striking overall stripe pattern interwoven with geometric designs. Measuring 8 1/4 × 11 inches, it exemplifies the era's innovative approach to bookbinding decoration, where printed covers both protected volumes and enticed readers with bold visual appeal. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department as part of The Elisha Whittelsey Collection (acquired in 1948), it reflects the anonymous craftsmanship that fueled the booming print industry during indus...
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...