Classical decorative inlay art includes intricately carved floral patterns and entwining geometric shapes embedded with finely coloured precious and semiprecious stones. This cover design is a fine example of these hallmarks of the inlay decorative technique and was captured by the renowned travel and architecture photographer Gérard Degeorge.
Degeorge has spent much of his career travelling the world and photographing its artistic riches. Particularly enraptured with Eastern and Islamic art, Degeorge’s globetrotting has led him to capture some of the most distinctive glazed and brightly coloured tiling the world has to offer. He has accumulated a vast collection of nearly 50,000 slides from his travels, one photograph from which we have reproduced for our Mirror Vine cover.
We originally released this Mirror Vine design in Fall 2003 as part of our Intricate Inlays series and it was discontinued in Fall 2016 – an impressive run! In April 2017 we began our yearlong celebration of our 25th Anniversary, and part of that was an online contest to vote to bring back one retired design. And thanks to your votes, after three tight voting rounds, Mirror Vine was declared the winner.
We’re pleased to bring this unique example of inlay artistry back to our catalogue. Perhaps some of Degeorge’s passion for the art and culture of the Arab-Muslim world will inspire you to build your own mini museum from your travels!
About Paperblanks: 25 years ago, we created Paperblanks to help keep book heritage alive and vital in our modern age, and to offer an inspiring space for people to express themselves. Thanks for joining us on this journey! For more about Paperblanks, go to our website at paperblanks.com.
