Book cover with yellow floral pattern atop blue curved lines
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 7 7/8 × 10 3/16 in. (20 × 25.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940
Accession Number
40.21.100
Art Historical Context
This charming 19th-century book, created anonymously and now housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Drawings and Prints, a vibrant yellow floral pattern layered atop swirling blue curved lines. Measuring 7 7/8 × 10 3/16 inches, its compact size suggests it was designed to adorn the front of a bound volume, a common practice during the Victorian era when decorative covers transformed everyday books into objects of beauty. Produced as a relief print—likely from wood or metal blocks—the artwork showcases a technique popular for bookbinding and ephemera in the 1800s. In relief p...
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...