A Dictionary of Ornament: Highlights from Cooper Hewitt’s Print Collection

Join Cooper Hewitt for an illustrated talk exploring the Decloux collection of ornament and architecture prints. The museum is home to the premier collection of ornament prints in the United States, consisting of over 13,000 European prints from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The lecture will include highlights from the collection by some of the most celebrated artists and designers of the period, as well a discovery of more hidden treasures by many forgotten or lesser-known artists and printmakers.

Ornament prints were produced with the purpose of illustrating designs, patterns, or motifs of decorative ornament for use by craftsman and applicable to all aspects of applied arts from ceramic vases to furniture, from wall paneling to wrought-iron gates.

This illustrated talk will introduce the Decloux collection of ornament and architecture prints by exploring the language of ornament. How do these printmakers and publishers describe and title their works? What are the most common terms and motifs found in this broad genre and why? And how do these two-dimensional intaglio prints translate to real three-dimensional objects and interiors?

SPEAKERS

Rachel Jacobs is an independent curator specializing in French 17th-and 18th-century books and prints, based in Toronto, Canada. Since 2021, she is the Remote Senior Research Cataloguer for the Decloux collection of ornament and architecture prints in the Department of Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She was previously Curator of Books and Manuscripts at Waddesdon Manor (Rothschild Collections) National Trust in England, where she continues to work remotely part-time. She has curated several exhibitions at Waddesdon Manor including most recently Alice’s Wonderlands: Life, Collections, and Legacy of Alice de Rothschild (1847-1922) (2022-23, co-curated). 

Jamie Kwan is the Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.  She received her B.A. from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in art history from Princeton, where she specialized in Renaissance and Baroque art, as well as Qing export and Jesuit art. Before her time at the Cooper Hewitt, Jamie served as the Associate Curator at the Wende Museum, an institution focused on the Cold War in Culver City, California and has held positions at the Morgan Library & Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, Huntington Library, and Getty Research Institute. In addition, she has taught courses at the University of California, Riverside and The Cooper Union. 

ACCESSIBILITY AND WHAT TO EXPECT

  • Format: The program will be hosted on Zoom.
  • The viewing link will be emailed to you upon registration.
  • The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speaker will give a presentation with slides followed by an optional Q&A with the audience. 
  • Accommodations: The program will have live closed captioning. If we can provide additional services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date. 
  • Recording: The program will be recorded and posted on Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel within two weeks. 

 SUPPORT

The cataloguing of the Decloux collection has been supported by the National Collections Program at the Smithsonian Institution.