Books and Manuscripts

Jones, Owen, and Jules Goury
Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra...
London: Published by Owen Jones, 1842-45. In two volumes. First edition. Elephant folio, 22 7/8 x 16 7/8 in. (581 x 429 mm). Illustrated with two chromolithographed title-pages and 102 plates (comprising 67 chromolithographs, several enhanced with gold, and 35 lithographs or engravings), including two hand-colored plans, one folding and one double-page plate, as well as several in-text wood engravings. Three-quarter red morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, stamped in gilt, brown morocco spine labels, extremities and boards rubbed and lightly worn, joints rubbed, short split in lower front board joint of Vol. I, front boards of each volume bowed; all edges gilt; matching marbled endpapers; scattered light foxing to text and plates; pale dampstaining in bottom corner of plates in first volume and in top corner and edge of second volume; repaired closed tear in bottom edge pp. 11/12 in first volume. Abbey, Travel 156

First edition of Owen Jones's monumental work on the Alhambra, in Granada, Spain, superbly illustrated with fine chromolithographed plates. A pioneering designer and innovative printer, “Jones's approach to colour-printing was that of the precise architect with an eye for abstract design and the harmony of colours…here Jones is a forerunner of Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Art Nouveau” (Abbey). 

Inspired by Islamic architecture, Jones first visited the Alhambra while on his Grand Tour in the 1830s. Alongside French architect Jules Goury, he spent six months studying the palace's design and produced hundreds of drawings and plaster casts. Following his return to England, he sought to publish his studies using the novel printing technique of chromolithography in order to capture the Alhambra's bright polychromatic designs. The resulting publication, as seen here, is considered one the finest and most influential works on Islamic architecture, and is an important precursor to Jones's own seminal design handbook, The Grammar of Ornament, published in 1856.