Owen Jones

"Owen Jones was the sort of innovative total designer in the nineteenth century that Robert Adam was in the eighteenth century and Frank Lloyd Wright was in the twentieth. Equally proficient - and prolific - in the fields of architecture, design (graphic and interior), and publishing, Jones was a passionate reformer and theorist who sought to elevate British taste through education and by improving the design and manufacture of furniture, textiles, wallpaper, carpets, and other produces. Through his efforts, he transformed thinking about architecture and the decorative arts by introducing the psychology of perception." "While Jones was well-known to the English public he served and to generations of designers in Europe and North America through his Grammar of Ornament, his extraordinary contributions were eclipsed in the record primarily because his adversaries, the most important being John Ruskin, outlived Jones and were able to promote their ideas for many years after his death. In this beautifully illustrated volume, Jones scholar Carol Flores redresses this historical imbalance and reveals Jones for the visionary designer and major theorist that he was."--Jacket.