2-755-762 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mosaic floors, Germany, 18th century, (1898). 'Our plate represents some floors executed in a very original manner...we do not find so much geometric patterns applied to these inlaid floors, as rather grandly composed designs, displaying full life, and having a peculiar charm through the variously coloured woods, especially where vegetable objects are represented. The whole of the depicted patterns were executed by Johann Georg Beyer, cabinet-maker to the Wurttembergian court at Stuttgart, for the Solitude [Castle Solitude], a chateau near Stuttgart, built by Charles, Duke of Wurttemberg [Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg], during 1763-1767. However, only a small portion of these precious floors is preserved at the present day. The original drawings are in the possession of Mr. Beyer, joiner at Ludwigsburg, a descendant of the above named cabinet-maker'. Plate 81 from "The Historic Styles of Ornament" translated from the German of H. Dolmetsch. [B.T. Batford, London, 1898]