“The Order for Morning Prayer” illuminated by Owen Jones, 1809-1874

The Order for Morning Prayer

Owen Jones, 1809-1874, illuminator

1845

23.5 x 16 cm.

Source: The Book of Common Prayer

Beckwith, Victorian Bibliomania catalogue no. 2

The Book of Common Prayer is the main source of the liturgy and ritual of the Protestant Episcopal Church [the Anglican Church or the Church of England], established by King Henry VIII in the sixteenth century. Thomas Cranmer, Henry VIII's Archbishop of Canterbury, completed the first official Prayer Book in 1549, two years after Henry's death. By means of this book the form of the sacraments and the principles of the English Church were circulated in English to every congregation and member of the church. One cannot overestimate the importance of this work of sacred texts and discipline in the history of England. [continued below]

Mouse over text below to find links

Courtesy of the New Bedford Free Public Library

Commentary by Alice H. R. H. Beckwith

This was the book that members of the national church knew in greater detail than the Bible; it was the British answer to the Latin liturgical books of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the Missal, Breviary, Manual, and Pontifical. During the Victorian period, the sense of history, tradition, and national identity which many English people associated with this book made it a logical choice for honoring with ornament.

When Owen Jones's decorated version of The Book of Common Prayer was printed in 1845, England was in the midst of political and religious transition. Roman Catholics were newly allowed a modicum of social and political freedom by the Catholic Emancipation Act passed by Parliament in 1829, but by the 1840s groups such as the Young Ireland Movement were organizing large public rallies to demand home rule in Ireland. Many Englishmen feared the Roman Church and its adherents. Associated with this fear was a distrust of ornamental arts which seemed derived from Roman Catholic traditions, and these were criticized as "Popish fancies." Artists who looked to the medieval period for their ornamental inspiration were in danger of public censure. The interest of English Episcopalians in the Gothic Revival was made more difficult by the outspoken architect and Roman Catholic convert, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, who insisted that the logical conclusion to a revival of Gothic arts was conversion to Roman Catholicism. Pugin had achieved public recognition through his books, and as one of the architects of the Gothic Revival Houses of Parliament (1835-65; image).

Owen Jones (1809-1874) identified himself as an architect on page 1 of this Book of Common Prayer. He undoubtedly knew of Pugin, but he was not concerned with ideology; rather, he was interested in historical ornament as inspiration for modern design. Unlike Pugin, he did not limit himself to the study of one period or even one culture, but strove to ascertain universal principles of design and studied Oriental as well as Occidental arts. However, the prototypes which Jones and his publisher John Murray had in mind when designing The Book of Common Prayer were hand-illuminated Breviaries, Psalters, and Books of Hours, as well as Bibles painted in the Middle Ages.

John Murray published the Book of Common Prayer in an edition of 4,000, hoping to follow the success of Jones's printed illuminated Ancient Spanish Ballads (cat. 27) with an even more elaborate production (McLean, Victorian Book Design 89-90). Almost every one of the over 500 pages is decorated with wood-engraved borders in a wide variety of styles, printed in black, blue and red together or in single colors including green, lilac, blue, red, and brown. There are eight printed illuminated title pages chromolithographed in gold, red, blue, and green, and four full-page woodcut plates by John C. Horsley and Henry Warren with engraved borders and a tint over the print. Thirty-seven wood engravings after Raphael and others illustrate the text. Ruari McLean has pointed our that each of the Main Sacraments is accompanied by an illustration showing the sacrament taking place in a contemporary setting. This was certainly in keeping with Jones's intention to bring his study of the arts to bear on his own times, and may also have seemed a good way to avoid reference to the medieval Roman Catholic Church.

Illustrated here is the page which begins the order for Morning Prayer. It is not a copy of any previous book, but the lancet shape of the lunette which surrounds the text, and the gothic or black letter type used for the page heading, recall medieval manuscripts. A printed illuminated initial W and a stylized floral border both set on a black background stippled in white complete the decoration, and recall ornamental sources from the fifteenth century and later. In addition, the black background suggests Oriental inspiration; Jones noted in his Grammar of Ornament (cat. 47) that East Indian designers used dark ground against which they placed light motifs.

Related Material

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer and Victorian Values

References

Beckwith, Alice H. R. H. Victorian Bibliomania: The Illuminated Book in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Exhibition catalogue. Providence. Rhode Island: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 1987.

McLean, Ruari. Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing. 2nd edition. [London]: Faber & Faber, [1972].

[Protestant Episcopal Church]. The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, illustrated with Engravings from the Works of the Great Painters. London: John Murray, 1845. Illuminator: Owen Jones. Printer: Vizelly Brothers & Co. Woodcuts: J. C. Horsley and Henry Warren. Cutters: J. Thomson and S. Williams. Wood engravings: George Scharf, supervised by Lewis Gruner.

Last modified 18 December 2013