Wallpaper by Owen Jones
A flat, geometrically stylised floral pattern following Jones’s rules for good ornament.
Owen Jones wrote The Grammar of Ornament in 1856 and held that walls should look flat. His wallpapers were a reaction against the naturalistic floral patterns of the day. Examples are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Materials: Paper, distemper
Manufacture: Hand-printed from woodblocks; the pattern built on a grid with no shading at all.
The pattern is entirely flat – no shadows or illusions of depth.
The strict symmetry over an invisible grid.