Special Collections

Decorative Sunday

This week we present some parapet designs from Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913. The plates displayed here are from volume 10 on parapets, the decorative extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, balcony, or other structure..

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record of the architectural heritage of the Jeypore State and the north-west region of Rajasthan. As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.”

Of the 12-volume set we only hold volumes 7 (String and band patterns), 9 (Dados), and 10 (Parapets). These have been digitized and may be found in our digital collections.

View other posts from the Jeypore Portfolio.

View more Decorative Sunday posts.

Dado Designs from the Jeypore Portfolio

This week we revisit the decorative plates from Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913. The plates displayed here are from volume 9 on dados, the decorative treatment to the lower part of a wall.

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record of the architectural heritage of the Jeypore State and the north-west region of Rajasthan. As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.”

Of the 12-volume set we only hold volumes 7 (String and band patterns), 9 (Dados), and 10 (Parapets). These have been digitized and may be found in our digital collections.

View other posts from this title here.

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

Parapet Designs from the Jeypore Portfolio

This week we return to the Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913. Shown here are a few parapet designs, the decorative treatment to the extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, from volume 10 in the set.

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore (Jaipur) State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record of the architectural heritage of the Jaipur State and the north-west region of Rajasthan (not to be confused with the city of Jeypore in Odisha, India). As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.”

Of the 12-volume set we only hold volumes 7 (String and band patterns), 9 (Dados), and 10 (Parapets). These have been digitized and may be found in our digital collections.

View other posts from this title here.

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details

Today we are presenting decorative plates from Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913.

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record of the architectural heritage of the Jeypore State and the north-west region of Rajasthan. As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.” The plates displayed here are from volume 9 on dados, the decorative treatment to the lower part of a wall.

View other posts from this title here.

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern

Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details

Today we are presenting decorative plates from Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913.

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record of the architectural heritage of the Jeypore State and the north-west region of Rajasthan. As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.” The plates displayed here are from volume 10 on parapets, the decorative treatment to the extension of the wall at the edge of a roof.

View other posts from this title here.

View more posts about decorative arts and pattern books.

–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern

Jeypore Portfolio

It’s Sunday, and time for another visit to the Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913. This week we focus on plates from the Portfolio being installed at Milwaukee’s Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum as part of the UWM Libraries-initiated Look Here! Project exhibition that runs June 28-September 16.

The portfolio set was researched by Milwaukee artists Cynthia Hayes and Nirmal Raja to make new work for the exhibition. Hayes created paintings based on plates from the Portfolio. The Portfolio was prepared by British Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh and with the assistance of Indian master draftsman Lala Ram Bakhsh. It was photo-lithographed and published in London, and eventually a portion of it found its way to Milwaukee. Over 100 years later, American artist Cynthia Hayes used these Indian-commissioned designs, as seen through Anglo-Indian eyes, published in Europe, and deposited in an American collection, to create paintings on imported Kalamkari fabrics given to her by her Indian-American colleague Nirmal Raja.To complete this century-long cycle, Hayes premiered her new paintings for an Indian audience at an exhibition in the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata during February 2018. How meta!

Indian-born Milwaukee artist Nirmal Raja also used the Jeypore Portfolio, as well as Western Orientalist publications from UWM’s Special Collections and AGSL, to create a room installation at Villa Terrace. She used patterns from the Portfolio to create a Jaali-styled latticed screen on the windows of the south-portico sun room of Villa Terrace. Raja conceives of the screen as “a device for power [and] also a filtering mechanism. The person who is surrounded by the screen is looking out on the world, but also the world is wondering what must be inside.” As one gets closer to the patterned screen, the viewer can see that it is filled with recent reports of American xenophobic reactions to persons of perceived Middle-Eastern and South-Asian heritage.

Our head of Special Collections Max Yela in collaboration with Milwaukee artist and master papermaker Dara Larson also used patterns from this portfolio to create watermarks and paper-pulp prints for two handmade-paper installations: “Chandelier” and “Screen.” Altogether, Fifteen artists are participating in the Project. We will post more about their work in the coming weeks.

Learn more about the Jeypore Portfolio.

View more posts about the Look Here! Project.

Jeypore Portfolio

It’s Sunday, and time for another visit to the Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913. This week we focus on details from plates in volume 7, “String and Band Patterns.”

This portfolio set was researched by Milwaukee artists Nirmal Raja and Cynthia Hayes to make new work for the UWM Libraries-initiated Look Here! Project. Our head of Special Collections Max Yela in collaboration with Milwaukee artist and master papermaker Dara Larson also used patterns from this portfolio to create watermarks and paper-pulp prints for two handmade-paper installations. Fifteen artists are participating in the Project, and an exhibition of their new work will be on view at Milwaukee’s Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum June 28-September 16.

Learn more about the Jeypore Portfolio from last week’s post.

Jeypore Portfolio

Last week we wrapped up our Sunday series on The Golden Hind. This week we begin a new summer series focusing on some of the design books being used by artists in the Look Here! Project, which we highlighted on Friday. We begin with some plates from a set of publications being used by Milwaukee artists Nirmal Raja and Cynthia Hayes: .Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details, published in twelve volumes by Bernard Quaritch between 1890 and 1913.

Issued under the patronage of Maharaja Sawai Madhu Singh, the set was prepared under the supervision of Colonel Samuel Swinton Jacob, Indian Staff Corps, Engineer to the Jeypore State, and Lala Ram Bakhsh, head draftsman and teacher in the Jeypore School of Art, and was photo-lithographed by William Griggs of London, the inventor of photo-chromo-lithography. The Portfolio was intended to serve as a record the architectural heritage of the Jeypore State and the north-west region of Rajasthan. As a record, it would “rescue (such) designs from oblivion and give them new life.” The plates displayed here are from volume 9 on dados, the decorative treatment to the lower part of a wall.