ABSTRACT
In 1852, Ralph N. Wornum visited art schools in Paris and Lyon and was then appointed librarian and keeper of casts to the Schools of Design. In 1851, he was awarded the prize of a hundred guineas, offered by the Art Journal for the best essay on the subject: ‘The Exhibition of 1851 as a Lesson in Taste’. For Wornum, decoration was separated into two major divisions: the flat that was characterised by painting, and the round that was typified by modelling. In addition, for Wornum, ornament was appropriate for the smallest to the largest of man’s productions. Style in ornament is analogous to hand in writing, and this is its literal signification. As every individual has some peculiarity in his mode of writing, so every age or nation has been distinguished in its ornamental expression by a certain individuality of taste, either original or borrowed.
