The illuminated letters in this volume by the great Victorian designer Owen Jones, many taken from an illustrated edition of The Psalms of David, represent popular alphabet motifs that have been copied by artists and designers for more than a century throughout Europe and North America.
Each page of this versatile archive contains approximately 40 magnificently embellished individual letters of the alphabet. (There's also an additional page of equally attractive Arabic and Roman numerals.) Foliated and filigreed designs - ranging from small to large, simple to spectacular - display the meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail that have become synonymous with Victorian design.
Commercial artists, graphic designers, and craftspeople will find this elegant and versatile treasury of copyright-free decorative letters an excellent and indispensable sourcebook for graphic projects calling for old-fashioned Victorian charm.

When I first started to play with the concept that I might be able to actually produce pretty things using pen, paper and paint (nicely alliterative that), this was one of the first books I purchased. I didn't know much about the artist who created these lovely initials, but they did look like they were medieval. What I didn't realize is that Owen Jones, while a truly excellent artist and the man who almost single-handedly opened Victorian minds to the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, was, in fact, a man of the 19th century himself.

Jones studied medieval illuminated manuscripts, digested the art, and then, using them as his inspiration, created some extremely lovely works. Then he took what he had learned, organized it, and offered it up in books of his own so that others could appreciate and use the material themselves.

Much of his material is quite usable, whether for modern C&I uses and more period ones. My only caveat is that you make sure that you don't copy his human forms -- he tended to change the "sad" faces into happy ones. They're glaringly awful and very funny. ( )