19th Century Chinese Ornament

The Textile Blog has an interesting post on Owen Jones’ 1867 book on Chinese ornament, Examples of Chinese Ornament.

These examples of Chinese decorative work show the real beauty of composition, colour tone and balance that was the result of centuries of constant experimentation and innovation by generations of Chinese artists and designers. Certainly a long way from the overly fussy and often trite European version that was Chinoiserie.