Hanbuch der Ornamentik

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A hardback edition of Hanbuch der Ornamentik (Handbook of Ornament), written by Franz Sales Meyer, and owned by artist and architect Julian F. Abele. A small, thick hardback book (a). The cover (b) and first page (c) are detached from the spine and there is no back cover. The cover has a brown background illustrated in a black ink design depicting a round wreath framed by joint connected metal bars, representative of architectural building materials. In large black print it reads, from top to bottom: [SEEMANN’S / Kunsthandbücher / FRANZ SALES MEYER / HANDBUCH DER / ORNAMENTIK / LEIPZIG / E.A. SEEMANN]. The detached back cover (b) features wallpaper-like geometric print in dark ink. A detached blank page (c) from the book features a graphite inscription, “3.75” in its top left corner, a red ink stamp “A.H. BIELER,”, and is signed in black ink by Julian Francis Abele, “Julian F. Abele”.

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