When a Victorian silversmith, engraver, or artist wanted a first-class design, he went to Knight's Scroll Ornaments which remained throughout the nineteenth century as one of the foremost design sources available. F. Knight was a master of the Victorian engraving. His florid ornaments were to become the hallmark of Victorian design. He captured the Victorian love of the intricate, the fantastic, the extravagant with clean lines, shading, and three-dimensional effects.
Scroll Ornaments of the Early Victorian Period contains 71 metal-engraved designs: borders, frames, scrolls, cartouches, arches, corners, crests in varied sizes and styles. There are floral motifs: leaves, flowers, vines, wreaths ― all in ever-spreading and overflowing swirls. There are interlocking patterns of circles, rococo extravaganzas, incredible curlicues. And there are also lions, serpents, cherubs, fruit, vultures, mythical beasts, along with grotesque ornaments and heads, a fox hunt, and man grappling with imaginary beasts. If you need intricate Victorian scrollwork for a poster or an ad, a frame with cupids for a book cover, or Victorian designs for bookplates or cards, you can find all of this material and much more in this rich collection overflowing with remarkable Victorian ornaments.