Georgian Grace

Georgian Grace is the first of a trilogy of books on Georgian and Victorian design, followed by Victorian Comfort and Victorian Taste.

Although this book covers an earlier period, I still recommend it to those wishing to write or draw Victorian scenes, as this period provided much of the physical backdrop to which the Victorians added. Most books on the Victorian period focus on the innovations and seldom take the time to establish the baseline. Georgian Grace will give you that context.

Illustrated with B&W drawings throughout the text, 48 greyscale plates (most being 2-4 smaller images rather than a single large image), and a colour frontispiece. The illustrations are a mix of drawings, cartoons, genre paintings, and photographs illustrating architecture, furniture, household articles, etc. Some of the busier plates include keys to highlight items of interest.

It's difficult to pin down why exactly I find Georgian Grace (and its Victorian sequels) so useful. Most of the illustrations are of single articles without much visual context, it doesn't go into detail regarding the daily lives of the Georgians, it doesn't offer anything even resembling complete view of any one person, building, or event. With some of its illustrations and plates being referenced in multiple chapters, and with its multiple appendices, reading it can at times feel like reading House of Leaves. And yet, somehow, John Gloag collects and juxtaposes enough glimpses from primary sources to form what feels like a solid impression of what this period was like, what the Georgians valued and disliked, how this all came together into a coherent design style that remained consistent even as new conveniences were invented, at least until the public's desire for comfort and the craftspeople's desire for profit overrode their desire for grace in the Victorian era. These glimpses are well-chosen, and I found myself making tweaks to my existing art, taking notes, and imagining new story scenes many times as I read.

One thing I wish Gloag went into more is the ways in which designers incorporated the classical orders into non-architectural work. Gloag assures the reader that the widespread understanding of the orders is what gave Georgian furniture the elegance largely missing in Victorian equivalents, but does not explain how this manifests. The more architectural articles, such as cabinets and chimney-pieces, can incorporate the orders directly and occasionally did, but what about chairs, mirrors, and other items that did not directly feature any of the orders? Presumably there is more going on: some fundamental theory behind the proportions of the orders that is explained in the referenced works but not in Georgian Grace itself. Or, perhaps Gloag's thesis is backwards, perhaps the Georgians were not graceful because they appreciated the orders, but rather appreciated the orders because they were graceful. I won't reduce my rating over this concern though, because while the deeper reasons remain elusive, Gloag still clearly demonstrates the patterns found in Georgian design.