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Printing the Alhambra: Owen Jones and Chromolithography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Kathryn Ferry
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Extract

Plans, Sections, Elevations and Details of the Alhambra (1836–45) was a landmark work, both in the history of architectural books and in the development of colour printing. Owen Jones (1809–74) and the French architect Jules Goury (1803–34) spent six months surveying the Nasrid palace in 1834 and Jones was to make a return visit to Granada three years later to undertake further research. From its conception to final printing Jones’ Alhambra project took over a decade to complete. This work represented a huge investment in time and, of course, money, but its successful completion was to establish the name of Owen Jones as an authority upon Moorish architecture and as a pioneer in the new technique of chromolithographic printing (Fig. 1). Jones is probably best remembered today for his encyclopaedic Grammar of Ornament (1856) but, since Michael Darby drew attention to Jones’ predilection for Islamic architectural design, the Alhambra has increasingly been seen as an important contribution to the nineteenth-century taste for the Oriental. Many questions remain, however, regarding the production of this book. Using the evidence of important unpublished letters, this article investigates the circumstances behind Jones’ unusual sidestep into the role of printer.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 46 , 2003 , pp. 175 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2003

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References

Notes

1 Darby, Michael, ‘Owen Jones and the Eastern Ideal’ (doctoral thesis, University of Reading, 1974)Google Scholar and The Islamic Perspective, Catalogue of an Exhibition held at Leighton House (London, 1983).

2 Jules Goury travelled in Italy, Sicily, and Greece with the German architect Gottfried Semper. Referring to Goury’s work, Semper stated that, ‘The portfolio of this excellent artist… must contain the most complete and most reliable collection on polychromy that exists’. Semper, Gottfried, Die vier Elemente der Baukunst (Brunswick, 1851), p. 3 Google Scholar, quoted in Darby, ‘Eastern Ideal’, p. 13. It seems likely that Goury’s study of ancient colour may have had a significant impact upon Jones’ own interest in polychromy.

3 Amongst Jones’ travel drawings held in the Prints and Drawings Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum are two of ceilings from the Süleymaniye mosque complex in Istanbul (A202.8272.B, ‘Mosquée de Soliman, Rosace de la grande coupole’ and A202. 8273.B, ‘La voute de tourbe de Soliman’). These are both signed ‘OJ’ and dated October 1833.

4 The handwriting of this chronology, listing events and professional undertakings in Jones’ life between 1823 and 1857, was examined during the course of Michael Darby’s research and is generally accepted to be Jones himself. Darby, ‘Eastern Ideal’, p. 30.

5 Handwritten chronology, Owen Jones Box, John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

6 Letter from Frederick Catherwood to Robert Hay, 15 February 1835, British Library, Add. MS 38094, pp. 75-76.

7 The Builder, 9 May 1874, XXXII, p. 384.

8 Ibid., p. 384. The Alhambra is dedicated ‘To the memory of Jules Goury, Architect. Who died at Granada, August XXVIII, MDCCCXXXrV, whilst engaged in preparing the original drawings… by his friend Owen Jones’.

9 Catherwood to Hay, British Library, Add. MS 38094, pp. 75-76. The work referred to is Pascal Xavier-Coste, , Architecture Arabe, ou Monuments du Kaire, measures et dessinés de 1816 à 1826 (Paris, 1839)Google Scholar. Coste (1787-1879) had been employed in the service of Mohammed Ali Pasha and in 1828 sold his drawings of Cairo and other sites to Robert Hay for the sum of 12,000 francs before that gentleman’s departure from Egypt. Coste had offered favourable terms for the exclusive rights to his own drawings and notes on condition that they were published no later than 1830. A series of complex negotiations ensued, but the difficulty of finding a publisher to undertake the project and a certain reticence on the part of Hay delayed this project until Coste was finally forced to publish himself. The original drawings for Coste’s Architecture Arabe, owned by Hay, are now in the Searight Collection in the Prints and Drawings Dept at the Victoria and Albert Museum. See Tillett, Selwyn, Egypt Itself: The Career of Robert Hay, Esquire ofLinplum and Nunraw, 1799-1863 (London, 1984), pp. 43–45 Google Scholar.

10 By 25 July 1842 (the date of the advertisement for the Alhambra) Jones had altered the history of his publication for marketing purposes: ‘Overwhelmed by the loss of an attached friend and valuable coadjutor, Mr Owen Jones at once returned to England; and, in the following year commenced the publication of the original drawings.’

11 Vizetelly, Henry, Glances Back Through Seventy Years, 2 vols (London, 1893), 1, p. 200 Google Scholar.

12 Darby, ‘Eastern Ideal’, pp. 52-54.

13 Letter from Owen Jones to Joseph Bonomi, London, 17 June 1836, Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 9389/2/J/18.

14 Twyman, Michael, Lithography 1800-1850 (Oxford, 1970), pp. 37–40 Google Scholar.

15 Senefelder, Alois, A Complete Course of Lithography (London, 1819), reprinted with a new introduction by A. Hyatt Mayor (New York, 1968), pp. 271-73Google Scholar.

16 ‘Catalogue of the Valuable Library of the Late Owen Jones Esq. Sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, Saturday 10 April 1875’, lot number 167 (British Library, S.C.S.717).

17 The Builder, 14 December 1850, VIII, pp. 594-95. No such publication is listed in the archives of Longman and Company (University of Reading), but in 1822 a work entitled G. Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia was published by John Murray with lithographed plates by Hullmandel. The colour here, however, appears to have been added by hand, as was the accepted technique. My thanks to Michael Bott, Keeper of Archives and Manuscripts at the University of Reading for his help in identifying this work.

18 Williams, W. M. Smith, ‘On Lithography’, read 22 December 1847, Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1847-8 (London, 1849), PP. 227-50Google Scholar (p. 240).

19 Gascoigne, Bamber, Milestones in Colour Printing 1457-1859 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 31–32 Google Scholar. George Hoskins was an antiquary and amateur artist who, whilst travelling in Egypt, had attached himself to Robert Hay’s expedition during its encampment at Thebes. He arrived in May 1832 and stayed with Hay’s party for the rest of the year (Tillett, Egypt Itself, p. 52). In a note on his chromolithographs Hoskins begged his readers forbearance because ‘the management of such engravings as these is excessively difficult. Four colours are impressed from separate stones — red, blue, black, and the ground. The others were put in by hand … I am indebted to Mr. Bonomi for having drawn for me on the stones these and the other plates of sculpture’. Hoskins, George, Travels in Ethiopia (London, 1835), p. 329 Google Scholar.

20 Engelmann, stated in his Traité de Lithographie (Mulhouse, 1840)Google Scholar that ‘Je m’occupais déjà depuis nombres années de cette question importante’ (Darby ‘Eastern Ideal’, p. 49). See pp. 49-53 on the subject of early chromolithographie experiments.

21 Specification of Thomas De la Rue, Manufacture of Ornamental Playing Cards, Patent number 6231, awarded 23 February 1832. Jones was involved with the firm and family of De la Rue throughout his life, creating a house style for their stationary products as well as designing their factories and homes. This relationship almost certainly began around this time with issues regarding printing and paper.

22 Letter from Frederick Catherwood to Robert Hay, 21 March 1835, British Library, Add. MS 38094, p. 79.

23 In an effort to promote parts two and three of the Alhambra (published in the autumn of 1836) Jones reprinted reviews of part one from the Literary Gazette, the United Service Journal, The Atlas and the Athenæum. These appeared in a three-page advertisement at the back of a pamphlet entitled A Review of the Professional Life of Sir John Soane, read to the RIBA on Monday 6 February 1837 by Donaldson, T. L. (London, 1837)Google Scholar (British Architectural Library, RIBA, Pam.4.A). Prospective purchasers were informed that the work was: ‘Published by the Author, OWEN JONES, 11, John Street, Adelphi and ACKERMANN & Co., 96, Strand.’ The work was also available from J. Weale, High Holborn and I. Williams, Charles Street, Soho. This information also appears in Fig. 2. The Atlas was a general newspaper and journal of literature published weekly, on Saturdays, between May 1826 and January 1869. For a short period, between June 1862 and September 1865, it went under the name of The Englishman.

24 RIBA pamplet, 1837, description reprinted from The Atlas.

25 The United Service Journal refers specifically to the ‘Mosaic dado in the window on the north side of the Hall’ (RIBA pamplet). This detail identifies the fifth plate of part one as number XXXIX rather than number XLI (also depicting mosaic dados in the Hall of the Ambassadors) which in some copies is also printed with the name of Day and Haghe.

26 Several letters written by Jones to accompany each part sent to the RIBA are pasted into the cover of the bound copy (British Architecture Library, E.a.98/1). The first, dated 11 April 1836, and addressed to T. L. Donaldson, begins ‘Allow me to offer through you the first number of my work on the Alhambra (published this day) for the acceptance of the Institute of British Architects hoping that they will consider it worthy of a place in their library’. The British Library copy (Tab.1326.d), originally issued to the British Museum, is listed among Jones’ subscribers.

27 See Cambridge University Library copy (Tab. b.166) and Bodleian Library copy (2049.a.1). According to Vizetelly, ‘Owen Jones bitterly complained that the government, instead of assisting him, as foreign governments helped their subjects by subscribing for copies of similar works, actually taxed him to the extent of two or three hundred pounds — exacting in strict accordance with the law, five expensive india paper copies of the work … for the benefit of certain public libraries’ ( Vizetelly, , Glances Back, 1, p. 200 Google Scholar).

28 Letter from Jones to Bonomi, 17 June 1836, Cambridge University Library, Add 9389/2/J/18. Jones’ underlining.

29 Idem.

30 Idem. Jones owned a large number of books by the chemist Michel Chevreul and it was according to his colour theories that Jones designed the interior colour scheme of Paxton’s Great Exhibition building in 1851.

31 Idem. Jones’ underlining.

32 Idem.

33 Press cutting dated 21 April [1874], publication unidentified, in the Owen Jones Box, John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library. Before the Alhambra was completed Jones was already using his press to print plates for other works. At least some of these, particularly in the new genre of illuminated gift books, appear to have been conceived as money-making ventures. In the case of a work like Lockhart’s, J. G. Ancient Spanish Ballads (London, 1841 and 1842)Google Scholar, which popularized Spanish culture, they could also provide Jones with a vehicle for advertising the Alhambra.

34 The catalogue for the Sotheby’s sale of 11 December 1854 is held by the British Library (S.C.2425). This lists copies of the Alhambra in three different formats: 64 large paper, 101 small paper and 42 special manufacturers copies. In the catalogue for the 1875 disposal of Jones’ library an unbound set of both volumes in large paper was listed, as were two further incomplete sets of Volume 1. Five public libraries received volumes according to Copyright Law and Jones donated one copy to the RIBA Library. He also awarded two copies as prizes to students who made the most approved measured drawings of the garden front of the Travellers’ Club, presumably as a promotional venture.

35 Athenæum, No. 2426,25 April 1874, p. 56g. The Athenæutn reviewed the original parts of The Alhambra as they were issued but I could find no reference within its pages during 1847 to the appearance of a second edition.

36 Flores, Carol, ‘Owen Jones, Architect’ (doctoral thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996), p. 44 Google Scholar. An undated letter in the National Library of Wales (MS 20028B) written by Jones’ sister Catherine states that Tyddyn Tudur, in the parish of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr (birth place of Owen Jones Senior), passed out of the family after the death of Jones’ nephew in 1878. My thanks to Geraint Phillips, Assistant Archivist, Special Collections at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

37 Owen Jones Esq to Miss C. Jones, ‘Mortgage of a Farm in the County of Denbigh to secure the repurchase of £1142:10:0 new £3:10 per cent consols and the Dividends’, 27 September 1837. Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin, papers of Mainwaring of Galltfaenan, DD/GA/683.

38 Press cutting, Owen Jones Box.

39 Library Sale Catalogue, 1875.

40 Jones to Bonomi, 17 June 1836.

41 Bernard Quaritch, General Catalogue (London, 1877), item 19205, pp. 1359-60, quoted by Michael Darby, ‘Eastern Ideal’, p. 48 (British Library, T5249.OIOC).

42 Pls 39, 41, as compared with A202.9156.72 and A202.9156.111. Prints and Drawings Department, Victoria & Albert Museum.

43 My thanks to Stanley Jones of Curwen Studios (Artistic Lithographers), Chilford Hall, Linton for his advice on this matter.

44 See note 30 above.

45 The binding of this copy is inscribed ‘VR, National Prize to Schools of Art’ and inside the front cover is pasted a piece of paper on which loans were to be registered. The single entry reads as above (National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, PC 6/7 v.I).

46 Jones died on 19 April 1874 at his home, 9 Argyll Place, Regent Street, London, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.

47 Birmingham University Library copy (rff NA 387.G7). Osier’s, the famous Birmingham glass manufacturers, was founded in 1807 by Thomas Osier and a Mr Shakespeare. When the firm moved to new London premises in 1858 Jones won the commission to build a new showroom at 43 Oxford Street. He had previously been involved with the firm at the Great Exhibition in 1851. See Darby, Islamic Perspective, pp. 83-85.

48 In Quaritch’s General Catalogue of 1868, p. 758, two copies of the Alhambra were offered for sale as numbers 10881 and 10881*. The former, a small paper copy was advertised at £12, half the publication price, and the latter, a large paper copy, was reduced from the publication price of £36 to £16 16s. (British Library, 11902.cc.31, 2 vols). In the Birmingham University Library copy of Volume I, twelve of the chromolithographed plates show a grey tone in the place of blue while the other thirteen maintain a bright blue colour.

49 Darby, ‘Eastern Ideal’, p. 49.

50 RIBA pamphlet, 1837. My italics.

51 De la Rue patent, 1832.

52 Letter from Joseph Bonomi to Robert Hay, 26 October 1836, British Library, Add. MS 38510, pp. 137-38. Charles Humphreys was private secretary to James Burton during his travels in the East and had worked with him and Bonomi on the publication of Excerpta Hieroglyphica (Cairo, 1825-28). After his return to London in late 1835 Humphreys became secretary to the Geological Society; he died in 1839. It is interesting that these men were reliving their foreign experiences through food. On this occasion Jones was providing his guests with ‘Ruz ma filfil’, or rice with falafel.

53 Williams, ‘On Lithography’, p. 241.