The Book

Joseph and His Brethren. Genesis Chapters XXXVII, XXXVIII. XL.
London: Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen & H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, (1865) Publisher’s binding by Leighton Son & Hodge
Victorian chromolithography, brilliant example of mid-Victorian color printing.
Illuminators: Owen Jones & Henry Warren, and On Stone Albert Warren.
52 chromolithographic plates with illuminated geometric, pseudo-Egyptian borders and ornament, the bold borders reflect the books' settings of Egypt. Alternating pages of drawn text and illustration designed as pairs of facing pages, all within Egyptianesque rectangular borders. From six to thirteen colors were used per page.
Ruari McLean, Victorian Book Design: “ ...his pages owe nothing to
the traditions of book design which are based on engraving:
but since the text is drawn to imitate the regularity of type,
there is no obvious link with the manuscript tradition either... a
new conception of book design, which prefigure the Kelmscott
openings of thirty years later.”

All the borders that ornate the pages of this book have been hand drawn in EPS vector format by Alfredo Malchiodi and are available as a clip art CD collection and for instant download at alfredom.com.