Art Nouveau Fantasy Animal Jewelry Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

The elegant, undulating lines of Art Nouveau ― an ornamental style of art that flourished in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ― lent themselves especially well to designs for settings of precious stones and metals.This unique collection of more than 600 designs, reprinted from a rare turn-of-the-century French portfolio, reflects the Art Nouveau style as applied to jewelry designs featuring fantasy animals. A host of mythological beasts, monsters, and fabulous creatures has been cleverly incorporated into designs for pins, brooches, sword hilts, knife handles, pendants, buckles, rings, combs, and other decorative accessories.Captured here in the rhythmic flow of Art Nouveau's sinuous, curvilinear lines are strange birdlike creatures, grotesque aquatic animals, harpy-like beasts, insects of a very peculiar nature, curious mollusks and shellfish, winged snakes and other fantastic fauna, along with a wealth of plant forms and strange organic shapes.Gathered in this convenient archive, these extraordinary drawings represent a vast source of unusual, permission-free art ― ready to add an intriguing touch not only to jewelry designs and craft work, but also to book and magazine illustrations, posters, signs, and many other graphic projects. Read more