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Object Timeline

1948

  • We acquired this object.

1970

2008

2015

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Design for a Rocaille Ornament

This is a Drawing. It was attributed to Frederick Crace and firm: Crace & Son. It is dated ca.1839 and we acquired it in 1948. Its medium is brush and gouache, gold paint on dark blue wove paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.


This ornament design elaborates on the eighteenth-century rococo cartouche form, adding a contemporary color palate of rose and gold against the dark blue paper and a broader, more swashbuckling bravura paint handling. The Crace firm had a variety of eighteenth-century rococo ornament prints as well as their own designs as sources of inspiration.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.

  • Charger (France)
  • tin-glazed earthenware.
  • Gift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw.
  • 2008-40-8

Its dimensions are

24.1 × 19.8 cm (9 1/2 × 7 13/16 in.)

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for a Rocaille Ornament; Attributed to Frederick Crace (English, 1779–1859); Firm: Crace & Son; England; brush and gouache, gold paint on dark blue wove paper; 24.1 × 19.8 cm (9 1/2 × 7 13/16 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane; 1948-40-186

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Rococo: The Continuing Curve 1730-2008.

This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18609881/ |title=Drawing, Design for a Rocaille Ornament |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=10 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>