The handmaid to the arts ...
The Handmaid to the Arts is a two-volume English technical manual of 1764 by Robert Dossie, printed in London by J. Nourse for craftsmen and practitioners working in chemistry, painting, glass and engraving. The pictures are repeated woodcut-style ornamental headpieces, a crowned monogram flanked by scrolling acanthus leaves and flowers, printed in dark ink on cream paper. A designer could take from them the symmetrical, mirrored scroll-and-cartouche arrangement typical of eighteenth-century printed ornament.
