Customer Reviews

Ancient Scandinavian Designs (International Design Library)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Furiously disappointed with this book, the contents of which are basically 44 pictures in black and white (and not greyscale, but solid black, and the white of the paper) of typical scandinavian patterns. There are 4 pages at the front talking of the history in general but nothing specific for each of the pictures.

The purpose of this book seems to be for people to transfer the images onto something else (by tracing etc..) but really, there is little substance to it, and you could find better pictures with a simple google search.

This book would have been far better with detailed explanations of the diagrams, their origins, photos of originals and greyscale, or dare I ask, colour. A great opportunity missed by the author. As it stands, it is worth approximately $2.00 only, with free postage.

A vastly superior work is "the Dragon and the Griffin" which is a 160 page book that details the elements of the designs and the progress through time.

I hate to have posted such a negative review but wish to save people the waste of time and money I endured due to the other favorable reviews, which I suspect were friends of the author.

A fair, but not terribly comprehensive collection (but then maybe I'm just spoiled by George Bain's "Celtic Art: The Methods Of Construction," which IS terribly comprehensive). All designs in this book are taken directly from viking artifacts, but drawn in bold black line drawings for easy tracing, copying, or whatever else you want to use them for.
I nice addition to my celtic/nordic art library.

This book is an excellant source for Scandinavian designs, usefull for art work and illistration. But I found it did not meet my needs for stenciling and interior designs. Great for Rose mauling techniques.

Pretty disappointed by this book, not much usable content for my purposes. A few of the images are good quality, but few and far between. Quite frankly, most of the images seemed more geared for the fairer gender.

The Nordic folk of Scandinavia were noted throughout Europe for their love of embellishment with respect to their boats, door posts, weapons, jewelry, and other accouterments of the Viking lifestyle and culture. Fabled animal and bird forms were among the favored types of decorative motifs, appearing in highly stylized, easily recognized imagery which was gradually incorporated into Celtic art styles as well. In Ancient Scandinavian Designs, Bev Ulsrud Van Berkom has gathered together an arrangements of designs drawn from surviving artifacts of Scandinavian culture from the 7th to the 12th centuries A.D., making it a unique and welcome contribution to personal, professional, art school, and academic library Scandinavian Art & Cultural History collections. Also very highly recommended art design titles from the Stemmer House Publishers "International Design Library" collections are: Rebecca Mckillip's Celtic Designs (0916144755, $6.95); Frances M. Bradbury's Faience Designs (0880450568, $5.95); and Silvia Crockett's Angels In Traditional Design (0880-45086X, $5.95).